We recently connected with Susanne Hammarstrom and have shared our conversation below.

Susanne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

We worked on a documentary about immigration call, ‘Land of Lights and Shadows’. It opened my eyes to understand what was going on in this country. It is sad to see what is happening to the undocumented workers and how the path to being documented is not easy, cheap or even possible for certain individuals.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Our founder, Jeremy Duckworth, loved being in front of the camera as an actor. But after relocating to Northwest Arkansas in 2011 to marry his beautiful wife Susanne, Jeremy saw a need for video and cinema production in the area.

He drew on years of being on set with some of the best directors in full-scale productions back in Wilmington, North Carolina, along with his passion for learning about new equipment, techniques, and distribution channels, to start a production company. Bod High Productions (BHP) was named after his and Susanne’s newborn son, Bodhi. Although it is pronounced ‘Bo dee’, Bod High soon became his nickname.

After starting BHP, Jeremy was hired to direct and produce the local television show, ‘Cooking Today’ for two seasons on KNWA. This show produced over 287 episodes and ended up making him one of the most experienced videographers in the area to work with shooting food content.

In 2016, his wife Michelle decided to join forces full-time, bringing years of experience doing graphic design and marketing. Together, they partnered with Chef Brooks to create a new farm-to-table show, Cook with Brooks, that ran statewide on AETN/PBS for Season 1. Although that show ended, Steven Brooks has been able to go on and appear on the Food Network, and Pilots for other large productions. Steven is now hosting his own series on Netflix.

BHP moved on to other shows and projects here in NWA. Producing a documentary film, Land of Lights and Shadows, took up a lot of 2019, as well as numerous other fun projects with their main client Tyson Foods. Then 2020 proved to be a year that tested them all. They had their busiest year yet, while also dealing with their oldest son being diagnosed with Leukemia in February. After 6 months of treatment, he is now 2 years in remission and enjoying everyday a little more.

During all that, Jeremy picked up an old habit of racing and decided to merge his love of racing and video, taking 2021-2022 to pursue this passion. During this time, Michelle decided to work as a Producer for Quad, a vendor for the Walmart Photo Studio. After a year of learning about ecommerce photography and trying something new, we decided it was time to put our hearts back into BHP. Although it was fun, the focus now is back on the business of making great content for our clients. We are forever adapting to the changing needs of content, but our adaptable and flexible team is able to shoot about anywhere at an affordable rate.

Over the last year, we partnered back up with Chef Brooks and created a new show called ‘About the Dish’. We were able to get two sponsors, Tyson Foods and Hiland Dairy, to back the show that are needing content weekly. This along with a Podcast, ‘Because We Cook’, ChefBrooksTV is keeping us busy. Life is good. Work is good, so we cannot complain. Thank you for all our clients that continue to come back for additional work, we keep busy.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

He is my husband, so we have found that we balance each other out. I’m more creative. He is more technical. Therefore, we work well together and it works well for us.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started in Graphic Design, but took a documentary film making class. It opened my eyes up to a more interesting 3 dimensional world. Design has changed and so I have I, so appreciate all the opportunities I have had.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bodhighproductions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodhighproductions/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodhighproductions/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bodhighproductions
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUQSWxf1GskHHdwId1wkiWw

Image Credits

Michelle Hammarstrom