MODOC
STORIES
We aim to find and tell stories through the lives and voices of real people doing honest work. With backgrounds in the editorial world, we're drawn to projects that send us out there amongst it to mix reportage with cinematic storytelling.
We collaborate with clients from concept > storyboard > production > delivery for documentary one-offs or branded campaigns in film, photo, and multimedia.
Our film, photo, and written work has appeared on Public Broadcasting, won awards—film festivals, Communication Arts, Telly, Pictures of the Year International, Lowell Thomas, and been a James Beard Award finalist.
Modoc, the name, is not a play on words for an increased amount of documentaries. Rather, it's the name of our grandparents small community where we skied, rope swang, and avoided water moccasins in rural South Carolina.
Yes, we are brothers. Twins almost: born on the same day, three years apart. If you ask our dad how, he'll tell you, "same way both times."
MICHAEL HANSON liked baseball a lot, enough to sleep on an inflatable mattress in the kitchen of a two-bedroom apartment in Danville, VA for an entire season while playing in the Atlanta Braves organization. His greatest baseball move occurred near midnight on a routine speeding violation. Instead of getting a ticket, Michael had the two Georgia highway patrolmen swinging bats in the emergency lane. He signed the old wooden bats for the uniformed men and got off scotch-free. By the time that career ended, he was becoming more interested in documenting off-field baseball life with his Minolta X700 film camera. Eighteen years later, Michael can't throw the ball as hard after a whitewater-induced rotator cuff surgery, but he dominates all bar games: shuffleboard-cornhole-SkeeBall-ping pong. He's won a few photo awards, too : PDN30 New & Emerging Photographer (2013), POYi, and Communication Arts as well as One of the World's Top Travel Photographers by Popular Photography Magazine, and Images of the Year by American Photo. His fine art work is in the permanent archive at the Elton John Collection
MICHAEL HANSON
See his full portfolio here
DAVID HANSON
DAVID HANSON began his career as a travel writer and editor with a national magazine. He co-authored the book, Breaking Through Concrete (2011, University of CA Press), a chronicle of America’s urban farm movement. The reporting involved a two-month cross-country farm tour while living out of a short school bus. Over the last decade his writing and storytelling work has evolved toward documentary and commercial films. He has traveled long distances by bike, kayak, and canoe. In 2013, alongside his brother Michael, David wrote, co-directed and "starred" in the award-winning doc film, "Who Owns Water." His 2017 travel broadcast about visiting National Parks with his dad won a Lowell Thomas Award and his story "Last Oyster Tongers of Apalachicola" was a finalist for a 2023 James Beard Award in Feature Reporting. David has contributed stories for The Bitter Southerner, Preservation, Canoe & Kayak, Mountain, Southern Living, Sunset, Travel Oregon, Outside, among others. Commercial and non-profit clients include Farmers Conservation Alliance, The Renewal Workshop, WhyHunger, American Rivers, REI, Starbucks, Brooks Running, and Friends of the Columbia Gorge.
See his full portfolio here
