Cameron Johnson, a senior mass media arts student from Marietta, began exploring the Athens bar scene when he turned 21. Over time, he found himself delving into craft beer, where Johnson found both a taste and a passion.
“People say they don’t like beer, but I think they just haven’t found the right beer,” Johnson said. “There’s so many different flavors and different things that you can get into.”
This culture was the inspiration for his senior capstone, a documentary he has titled “Beeraucracy: One Nation Under Hops.”
Craft beer isn’t as easy to come by as beer enthusiasts would hope. Georgia’s legislation prohibits patrons from buying directly from a craft beer brewery. Activists believe this is stifling the craft beer industry and if the laws were changed, Georgia’s economy would flourish with a call for new jobs and an increase in tourism.
Johnson hopes to illustrate this point by exploring both Georgia breweries and breweries in states that do not have these restrictions.
“My plan is just to show the difference. What they’re achieving with lightened laws, compared to what Georgia is achieving — kind of like what Georgia could be,” Johnson said.
Georgia has laws that once served a reasonable purpose but now are outdated in an ever-evolving society. Johnson feels this is the case with the craft beer restrictions.
“I think the law was put into place way back when moonshiners were selling stuff under the table, and Georgia just never changed it. But I mean, it’s 2015. We’re not worried about moonshiners at this point,” Johnson said.
Johnson is not the only one whose attention has been grabbed by this issue. Other interest groups such as the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild have made efforts toward craft beer liberation.
Enough public discourse has brought the issue to Congress, and Johnson is closely following the bill that would eliminate the restrictive laws.
“They’re in legislative session right now, so the law might get passed mid-production,” Johnson said.
He’s not worried if this is the case, and he feels that going back and re-exploring the once-restricted breweries would only add to his message. This flexibility is an asset considering Johnson has high hopes for this piece of legislation. He even knows he has one vote for his cause.
“I’m actually talking to Spencer Frye, one of the big Democratic Georgia State Representatives. He’s actually coming down to Athens to do an interview with me. [Frye] definitely wants it to pass,” Johnson said.
To capture the state-to-state differences, Johnson and his filming crew plan to travel the Southeast and film at a number of craft beer breweries. Of course, they started right here in Athens.
“We actually had our first shoot at Creature Comforts,” Johnson said. “We’ll be at Terrapin, hopefully Copper Creek [and] Sweetwater in Atlanta.”
However, in order for the desired discourse about the legislation to emerge, Cameron has to do some traveling.
He plans to film at Florida’s Cigar City Brewery, South Carolina’s Brewery 85, Holy City Brewing Company as well as COAST Brewing Company and Twin Leaf, Burial and Wicked Weed Brewery in North Carolina.
This is not a short list, but Cameron has a timeline to ensure he hits every destination while leaving enough time to polish the crew’s work.
“I hope to be in Charleston the first weekend of February. I’ll be in Tampa during UGA’s spring break. Asheville, we will be going in mid- to late-March,” Johnson said. “I hope to be done with shooting in late March and then have all of April to edit.”
After all the filming and editing, the documentary will be screened at Ciné on April 28.
“Beeraucracy: One Nation Under Hops” was born to fulfill a class assignment, but this director hopes to see his work grow to be more than just a good grade.
“I want to use this as more than just getting requirements for class. I hope to enter it into a lot of film festivals. Use it as a launching pad for my career,” Johnson said. “I’m passionate about the topic.”
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