BGSU film student, Sarah Moss, is creating and preserving history through her first documentary, “Deep Rust,” set to premiere on March 30 at 2 p.m. at the BTSU Film Theater. The film is being produced through the BGSU film department and captures interviews with her family, which follow their journey from Mississippi and Appalachia to Detroit; a place where they found work and paved their way of life.

 “This film is a love letter to my grandparents and to the people who made me who I am. They struggled, and they worked every day so that the next generation would have even more opportunities than they did. I just want to honor their dreams and their impact on their community,” Moss said.

Inspired through multiple losses in her family, she said her goal was to create the film to preserve and share the story of her heritage before there isn’t anyone left to share it, while also spotlighting those who have worked in the Rustbelt.

 “I think it’s giving value to a forgotten story that’s very important in American history,” said Rebecca Moss, Sarah’s mother. “Sarah is very inquisitive about how connections work and how things came to be. We (Moss’s parents) just have overwhelming pride that she thought her family’s story was important.”

They said leading up to ‘Deep Rust,’ Sarah first expressed her interest in filmmaking back in middle school, after she was placed into a film class as an extracurricular.

 “The teacher at the end of the year looked at us straight in the face and said, ‘Your daughter has a knack and a talent for this. I’ve already told the film teacher at the high school about her,’” said Rebecca.

 From that point forward, Moss began to develop her career by going out of her way to be involved in visual storytelling. Though COVID-19 was a struggle for many students, Moss maneuvered her way through the challenge and found ways to be involved, connecting with high school alumni and conducting interviews in her local Detroit area.

 “My video teacher in high school had really become my mentor. We had a lot of talks about college and she’s like, ‘Do you honestly think you could see yourself doing anything else?’ and I said, ‘I don’t really think so, nothing else is calling to me,’” said Moss.

 Following graduation, Moss and her parents began to research universities where she could pursue her talents in filmmaking. After visitations and much deliberation, Moss settled at Bowling Green State University, where she became involved with the local PBS station as a production assistant.

 “The nice thing about the BGSU film department is that it’s so collaborative. You really get to understand everyone in the department’s style and everyone in the department’s work ethic. When I had this idea pop into my head, I was kind of looking around and thinking about who I wanted to work with and who I trusted. Who did I think had the passion to help tell this story?” Moss said.

 According to Sarah, her family’s history means everything to her. Todd Moss, Sarah’s father, said as she was growing up, he would take Sarah to the local library where they would read about US history, which eventually grew into Todd telling Sarah about their family from Mississippi and West Virginia.

“My family on my mother’s side is from Mississippi, and my father’s from West Virginia. From an early age as a kid, we’d go down to Mississippi all the time because well, that’s what you did during the summer. You’d go down go to Mississippi for two weeks and sweat in the heat in Tishomingo county,” said Todd.

 Todd’s mother, and Sarah’s nana, Martha Moss, is the star of ‘Deep Rust.’ The youngest of ten siblings, Martha was born and raised in Tishomingo county, where she lived and worked until she and her mother followed the rest of the family to Detroit.

 “They pursued their dream here (Detroit) as far as work,” said Martha. “I had brothers and sisters who had settled here first, which made it easier to move. So, we migrated here, and this is where we made our home.”

 A home, Todd said, that didn’t come easily.

 “Let’s be honest. In northeast Mississippi in the 1930s and 40s, there wasn’t much to do except chop cotton or farm corn. That was about it. Money was not in the South at that time, so they looked at places like Detroit, where they thought they could make money,” Todd added.

 But, migration didn’t equal immediate success, something that Sarah wanted ‘Deep Rust’ to focus on. It was a job that broke your body without much financial reparation. According to Sarah, it was a struggle that many who lived in the Rustbelt faced.

 “You’re going to see things in the film that maybe you’ve known about for a long time, but you’ve never actually seen before. Such as the infamous Willow Run Plant, which back in World War 2 broke a record. They were rolling out one B24 bomber on the hour, every hour. They (the workers) are the ones that helped Detroit become the arsenal of democracy,” said Sarah.

 Initially, when Sarah approached her nana, she was hesitant to be on camera. However, Sarah explained to her that it was a way to preserve their family’s history and story. After she explained, Martha was ecstatic.

 “It makes me happy to see the kind of person that she is becoming. She really focuses on her studies and is doing so well at Bowling Green. I am just so proud of her. She loves what she’s doing, and your love for your work reflects in your work. I see a bright future for Sarah,” said Martha.

 Rebecca said for weeks after Sarah first told her family ‘Deep Rust’ was going to be created, Martha kept saying, “I can’t believe she wants to share my story.”

 A story and struggle that many others from Martha’s time share.

 “While ‘Deep Rust’ is the story of my family, this film is the opportunity for so many students to use their education with their learning and practically apply it to a real working film set, and tell a story that is similar to their own. All of us working on the film is from the Rust Belt in the Midwest and just like anyone else, they want to see themselves represented on screen,” said Sarah.

To learn more about the film follow @deeprustdocumentary on Instagram.