Documentary About Johnny Appleseed Being Filmed

An award-winning filmmaker from the Czech Republic is working on a documentary about John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, and that effort has brought him to Urbana University.

Miroslav Mandic, from Prague, Czech Republic, recently did some filming at the Johnny Appleseed Education Center and Museum on the campus of Urbana University. Also visiting the museum at the time was teacher Gail Anderson’s second-grade class from Urbana South Elementary School. Mandic filmed the group as Ann Corfman, Associate Professor of Education, talked to the students about Appleseed.

Mrs. Corfman is the author of “A is for Appleseed,” a children’s book about Appleseed.
Joe Besecker, Director of the Johnny Appleseed Society and Museum, said Mandic’s recent visit to Urbana University was his second. He also came to the campus and did some filming in February, and intends to return to the University later this year.

Mandic’s interest in Appleseed grew after reading the biography about the former Swedenborgian missionary, “Man and Myth,” published by Urbana University Press. Besecker said Mandic decided to focus his tenth film, the first shot in the United States, on Appleseed.
A European of Bosnian descent, Mandic studied filmmaking at Columbia University in New York. He has made nine documentaries, all of which were set in East Europe.

Besecker said Mandic intends to complete the Appleseed documentary in time to be shown at next year’s film festival in Indianapolis.

Miroslav Mandic (left) operates a camera while Ann Corfman, Associate Professor of Education at Urbana University, talks with a group of second-graders from Urbana South Elementary at the Johnny Appleseed Education Center and Museum on the Urbana University campus. Mandic, from the Czech Republic, is preparing a documentary film about Appleseed.