Ryan Scura and Dylan Ladds have been making movies together since they were both teenagers. What began as a childhood friendship quickly evolved into a creative partnership, culminating in Dooster, the award winning production company they started several years ago. Much of the duo’s work focuses on storytelling in the outdoor community, offering an often candid lens that frames one of their latest projects, a short entitled, “Urban Oasis: A Love Letter to San Francisco.” Ryan has called the film his passion project, one that “…was always put in the back of the line,” so we sat down with him to learn more about how it all finally came together; the role city parks play in making trail running more accessible; the challenges and benefits of creative collaboration; and much more.
TOPICS & TIMES:
- Teaching adventure filmmaking (4:14)
- “What is ‘Dooster’?” (11:16)
- How Ryan balances relationships that are both personal & professional (14:28)
- Trail running in San Francisco (18:15)
- Paddy O’Leary, “Coming Home,” and the creative process (23:08)
- “Urban Oasis” (33:33)
- Thoughts on the importance of publics parks & open spaces(46:25)
- Upcoming projects (50:18)
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One thing for people here is the USA (at least west of the Mississippi) to realize is what the green space in their town actually is classified as.
Here in Duluth MN, we are fortunate to have tons of acres of green space, per resident, fairly well spread out.
But what many people don’t realize, is that much of that space, including ‘parks’ where the walk, bike or ski, was actually state owned land, listed for (private development) sale.
This happened because of platting out of the city, but then many lots remained unsold.
So, I urge people to look up your area’s land ownership map, (often available online) and have a look at your town, to see who actually owned the green spaces you enjoy.
Then, the next step is political, to convert those spaces to actual park land, so they will be protected as public green space for the long term.