JShawn Guess

https://player.vimeo.com/video/60718161 ‘A lot of people think they know how to sharpen pencils, but… they don’t really.’ Such is the view of David Rees, a self-styled ‘artisanal pencil-sharpener’ who, at the time of this short film’s release in 2013, had sharpened some 1,500 No 2 pencils for paying customers.

I first walked on to a job site as a 12-year-old. After a few hours as a gopher – one whose job is to ‘go for’ tools and supplies needed by the skilled workers – I finished the day with money in my pocket. From then on, I spent each school break doing one form of construction or another. It was the 1980s. An hour north of Atlanta there was burgeoning demand from rural commuters and metro retirees for new mountain homes.