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Origin Story: How Fascination Film Studio began

Jul 24, 2024

4 min read

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Our story was born in the corner of a dusty attic, after my Dad passed away.





After he died, my brother and I started making our way through our mom and dad's stuff, the accumulation of their lives - and the artifacts of the family that they'd collected. I was in the attic with my brother, sneezing my way from box to box, and I came across a plain white banker’s box. Inside, I found carvings ... African artifacts. It took me a moment to remember what they were, but then it clicked. My great-aunt and uncle, maybe even a great-great aunt and uncle, had been missionaries in Africa, and these were theirs.


But here’s the thing ... their names. I couldn’t remember their names. And I couldn’t ask my dad. He was gone.


He was the youngest of three brothers, there was nobody else left to ask.


I wondered, "Which country in Africa did they serve in?" Were they simply missionaries, or was there a colonialist aspect to their story? I wish I knew. Wish I could ask my Dad. I regretted not recording those stories when I had the chance.


I could have. I have had lifelong passion for storytelling. Even as a kid, I was filming stuff on my VHS camcorder. When I was 14 years old I got my first radio show. By the time I was 16 I worked at WHO-radio in Des Moines.


I have always been a storyteller, a recorder of moments, but somehow I hadn’t recorded my own family’s history. I just assumed I’d remember it all. I didn't. A seed was planted in me when I realized it.


On my mom's side, my great-grandmother came to Iowa in a covered wagon when she was a young girl. I knew this lady until I was about twenty, and I remember her well. Joy Larsen.


Her story Is remarkable - legendary in our family. When she was a child, her mother passed away during childbirth, so her father, grieving and overwhelmed, packed up his kids in a covered wagon and journeyed to Iowa to be closer to his own parents, hoping they could help him raise the kids.


During that journey, tragedy struck: their wagon was hit by lightning, and my great-grandmother’s siblings, who were on either side of her, were killed. She survived, though, and her survival - among other things - means ... me. Because she lived, I am.


As I continued to search through the boxes, I found a diary - a record of her life, starting with her birth in Watertown, South Dakota, in 1904. As I read through this diary, I became committed to preserving her story with a film. Not for fame or fortune, but for my kids and for future generations.


Family histories like hers show just how much sacrifice went into the comfortable lives we lead today. My kids, for instance, have no idea what it took for them to grow up with the comfort and abundance they enjoy. My great-grandmother probably survived on a fistful of cornmeal a day as a kid. It's not her fault - It's what she was born Into. Contrast that with my kids - again, not their fault - they were born into it - but they'll LOSE THEIR MINDS if we buy the wrong brand of chicken nuggets.


They have only ever known climate control, a comfortable bed, stability, excess, abundance, extraordinary comfort. She only knew the frontier, the life of survival that came from these early settlers of the plains. As a result, she had grit, forged by the hardships of her time. That grit was passed down to my grandmother, who was raised during the Great Depression, and then to my mother, but maybe a little less, because she was raised in the 50's and 60's. Then some came my way, but by the time I was coming up in the 80's, we had A/C and cable TV and it just didn't engender the same amount of resilience. Grit.


Each generation has grown a little more removed from that struggle, and as comfort has increased, I think we see resilience decrease. I think this disconnection might contribute, in some way, to the epidemic of anxiety we see today. As we face problems that seem existential, maybe we forget that so has everyone before us, and get overwhelmed.


And so. It has become not just a passion or a on-the-side thing for me, but my central focus to make these films.


It's not just about heritage—it’s about connecting people to their past, helping them understand the sacrifices that have been made for them, and showing us the strength that lies in our roots.


As for my own kids: I want them to see that life wasn’t always as easy as it is now.


As I work on each film, I become even more passionate about this mission. Every story I uncover confirms that behind every door, there’s an extraordinary story waiting to be told.


And maybe, someday, I’ll have the honor of telling yours.


Teeg Stouffer

Jul 24, 2024

4 min read

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201

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