DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

This project is where my working life and personal passions intersect. 

Working on film projects with some of the Bay Area's best restaurants and most respected environmental institutions showed me the symbiotic relationship between artisanal food and environmental sustainability. Spending years traveling and living in Latin America; visiting farms and meeting producers; obsessing about food origins and learning about our global food systems led me to Setting the Bar: A Craft Chocolate Origin Story. 

The specific inspiration for the project started over dinner with a cacao farmer in Guatemala. The next day, I happened to meet cacao consultant Steve Bergin, whose passion for chocolate and dedication to rainforest preservation was both inspiring and addictive. In the following weeks, I met farmers, chocolate entrepreneurs, and others involved in the bean to bar cycle. I was hooked. 

Our film follows these passionate people who have dedicated their life to a better tasting and more sustainable chocolate bar. Their stories are fascinating, their dedication contagious and their final product, delicious.

Tim Shephard | Director, Setting the Bar Documentary

THE TEAM

Tim Shephard, Director

Tim is passionate about telling stories to raise awareness of social and environmental issues and inspire people to take action. Mr. Shephard started his career as a video journalist at Australia's largest newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, where he produced, directed, and edited a range of videos on social equality and human rights issues. After moving to San Francisco in 2011, Tim’s film work has focused on food and the environment working with NRDC, the Public Education Network, Robert Redford, Dave Eggers, Four Barrel Coffee and NOPA. Tim frequently travels to Oaxaca, Mexico pursuing his passion in the region with food and sustainability documentation.  

Amy Burns, Producer

Amy Burns works in film, accounting and finance mainly in the environmental sector focusing on budgeting, financial distribution and logistics. Her past employment and projects include work for California Environmental Associates, NBCUniversal Spanish and English News Programs and Sustainable Bolivia. 

Clementina Mantellini, Editor

Born in Venezuela, Clementina studied Arts at the Universidad de Venezuela and now resides in Mexico where she studied photography, video and film at el Centro de la Imagen. She has edited several award winning films such as Cuates de Australia that won Best Feature Length Documentary at the Ariel Awards in Mexico, Best Documentary at the Lima Latin American Film Festival, and Best Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2012.  This last year, she finished Lejos del Sentido that was featured in the Mexican and Iberoamerican selection of the Guadalajara Film Festival and Agave, Spirit of a Nation that premiered at SXSW in 2018.

Jack Guy, Field Producer

Jack is a freelance journalist who has worked extensively in Guatemala and other countries throughout Latin America. Originally from London, he planned to learn Spanish during a six month trip to the region but ended up staying for four years. During that time he has produced stories on human rights issues, politics and culture, as well as acting as an interpreter and translator for non-Spanish speaking professionals.