“The Mayor of Riddleville” Credit: Courtesy

If you’re looking for a mind-blowing film this weekend, head to a multiplex to see a blockbuster. But if expanding the way you see the world sounds more inviting, make your way to the Vermont International Film Foundation‘s Burlington screening room on Friday, January 31, when the Head Stretchers Society presents seven short films about Vermonters exploring wildly diverse pursuits.

They include Burlington artist Clark Russell, who lives in “Riddleville,” the expansive installation he has created in his apartment from thousands of small objects; Hong Yu, who leaves the kitchen of her well-known Burlington dumpling shop to do tai chi in the park for the cameras; and Julie Silverman, the self-described “Lorax for the lake,” who sounds the alarm for the health of Lake Champlain.

The films, screened together for the first time, are designed to stretch viewers’ perceptions and imaginations. To learn is to be human, according to Head Stretchers Society cofounder Michael Jager. Babies innately try to understand the world around them. “From the moment we arrive, we’re curious,” Jager said. “But the world has a strange way of squelching curiosity.”

“The Lake Keeper” Credit: Courtesy

Less a club and more an ideology, the Head Stretchers Society was inspired by an Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. quote: “One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Remaining curious and continuing to learn makes people happier, Jager believes. The Head Stretchers, launched in 2020, set out to engage people rather than talk at them. Organizers planned to host events where those in attendance would participate in whatever work, craft or area of expertise the speaker introduced.

Eventually, the society planned to market the gatherings without specifying the activity to take place. “We would get to a point where you’d just know if you went to a Head Stretchers Society experience, it’s going to be something you maybe have never done before — and you’re going to be in it,” Jager said.

The society held one such event, then COVID-19 put a stop to in-person gatherings. Meanwhile, filmmaker Ryan Boera left New York, came home to Burlington and found space to edit in the nearly empty Maple Street offices of Solidarity of Unbridled Labour, the brand design studio Jager founded. Hearing about the derailed Head Stretchers events, Boera asked Jager, “What if we filmed one?”

“So we kind of shifted the expression of it, but not the intention of it,” Jager said.

“The Squirrel Wringer” Credit: Courtesy

Boera directed the first film. “The Squirrel Wringer,” a five-minute work shot in black and white, features Williston resident Mike Isham as he works and talks about life as a fifth-generation farmer.

Besides Boera and Jager, directors include Chiara Hollender, Erika Senft Miller and Lukas Huffman. Their films vary thematically, technically and in length, ranging between three and 12 minutes. One common denominator is that the seven subjects are all pillars of their communities, Boera said. “So it is a pastiche. It is a collage of where we live.”

Another thing the films have in common: no budget. “This is all just pure passion,” Jager said.

Though the Head Stretchers plan to revive in-person events, they will continue to make films. Three are in postproduction.

The films’ subjects collaborated with the directors, helping to determine how their stories are told. “Riddleville” creator Clark Russell said his art should speak for itself, so “The Mayor of Riddleville” has no dialogue. The camera moves among the tall, narrow towers, crowded like miniature skyscrapers, where Russell has mounted intricate scenarios. Viewers see Russell holding his large metal wall sculptures as a “sound collage” that he helped create accompanies the art tour.

“The Operatic Dumpling” Credit: Courtesy

Yu, proprietor of Hong’s Chinese Dumplings on Pearl Street in Burlington, drastically changed the direction of “The Operatic Dumpling.” Boera had grown up eating Yu’s food, and he envisioned producing a sort of dumpling-making instructional video. But Yu didn’t want to be filmed cooking. “I love tai chi. Can we go do that?” Boera recalled her asking the film crew. “And we were like, OK, let’s see where this takes us.”

The original print version of this article was headlined “Head Stretchers Society Short Films Celebrate Curiosity”

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This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2025.

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Mary Ann Lickteig is a feature writer at Seven Days. She has worked as a reporter for the Burlington Free Press, the Des Moines Register and the Associated Press’ San Francisco bureau. Reporting has taken her to Broadway; to the Vermont Sheep &...