FALLS VILLAGE – Local filmmaker Eric Veden, who has been creating films about Falls Village since 2000, has released a new video, marking his 38th production featuring the people, businesses and everyday life of the community.
The latest video begins with scenes from the 2025 Fall Festival, featuring pumpkin decorating, live music and apple cider making.
Veden then sits down with Falls Village resident Barbara Lobdell, whose parents hailed from Wyoming. Describing her childhood as “low-drama, stable and happy,” Lobdell remembers leaving Laramie, Wyoming, after high school to attend the University of Washington where shereceived a degree in history and art. She then earned a master’s degree in Library Science and a two-year degree in electrical drafting.
Lobdell’s journey took her to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, where she worked as a draftsman for 35 years during what she described as “very much a man’s world.”
The film also features local blacksmith Will Blass, whom Veden describes as a “young, long-haired blacksmith extraordinaire.”
Blass traces his interest in metalworking to childhood.
“I grew up loving ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and decided I needed a magic sword,” Blass said.
Then, in high school, his attention turned to go-karts.
“Every time you want a new project you have to learn a new metalworking skill and it just kind of went from there,” he said of learning to forge and weld.
Blass said he got his first welder in eighth grade and started picking up tips from his father and cousin, Dusty Blass.
Another segment follows assistant librarian Anna Pattison and a group of children making 3D stars and lanterns at the Hunt Library, an activity that requires making cocoa first. It’s a representative slice of life at the library.
The film concludes with Alan Lovejoy at the library discussing his 2025 bicycle trip from Alberta, Canada to the U.S./Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico along the Great Divide.
To see the video, visit YouTube and search for “Eric Veden” or visit youtube.com/@ericveden4408. DVDs are also available through the David M. Hunt Library.
