Dakkan and Sarah: Artisans and adventures
Written by Charles Noyes
Photos by Kelly Z Photography
Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement
Published in Northampton Living (August 2021)
Picturesque rolling hills decorated with rows upon rows of verdant grapevines. Ancient traditions of winemaking passed down for hundreds of years; history is alive in front of your very eyes. For many, this would be a vacation like no other, but for Dakkan Abbe, this magical trip was almost a nightmare.
“It was crazy,” Dakkan remembered, “I flew in on March 1st, 2020 to shoot this passion project I’ve wanted to film for so long. We were shooting and figuring out which vineyards to feature, but by March 12th things began to change rapidly. First it was in Italy, then there was talk of travel restrictions, and soon my wife Sarah was calling me, begging me to come back home before it got any worse.”
Dakkan is no stranger to the Valley. He attended Deerfield Academy and UMass Amherst and grew up in Colrain, Massachusetts. While at UMass, Dakkan majored in English, but he soon became fascinated with documentary filmmaking and the power of non-fiction in general. After bouncing around between San Francisco and New York City, he finally got his first filmmaking opportunity to shoot a documentary about the Tuscan Hills for public TV stations across the country.
“It was really that love of journalism and telling true stories that made me want to get into documentary filmmaking,” said Dakkan. “I’m fascinated by people in the real world and what they feel, especially in other cultures.
My goal is to find authentic characters and documentaries provide that window into the lives of real people that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to.” Sarah Unruh met Dakkan through some mutual friends during their 20 years spent living in New York City. Before moving to the Valley, Sarah worked as a product designer in furniture design and home goods, but it was motherhood that sparked the idea for her current business, Maquette Kids.
“I was spending more time at home with our daughters,” Sable age 8 and Maren, who’s 5, “and I kept looking at their toys and thinking I could design something better. So that’s exactly what I did!”
“I wanted to design a dollhouse that reflected the neighborhood they grew up in so I designed it to look like a Brooklyn apartment building.” Funny enough, Sarah recently discovered that the area around State Street used to be an area full of toy manufacturers. The cluster of buildings around Kestrel produced miniature dollhouses for many years and gave her something of a spiritual connection to the area.
“I come from Tennessee,” Sarah began, “and so visiting the Valley with Dakkan felt so familiar in a strange way. The nature out here reminded me so much of home that when we were thinking about where to move after NYC, this was the first place on both our minds.” And that change came quickly because after Dakkan arrived home safe and sound from Bordeaux, they put their plan into motion and moved in the middle of the pandemic’s first summer.
“Lucky for us, our neighbors were all so lovely and helped us out in so many different ways,” Sarah began, “But it was difficult meeting people for the first time with masks on. As we’re seeing them again now without masks, it’s been taking us a second to recognize everyone!” The family has taken their time settling in, but already they’ve discovered some of their favorite spots in the Valley. “We all love Coco’s and Hungry Ghost bread. The access to great hiking and nature is something we can’t live without. We love hiking the Chesterfield Gorge and visiting the general store afterwards as a reward.”
As for the future, Dakkan is starting to feel settled in the Valley and is looking to contribute his filmmaking skills in whatever way he can. “I’m working on a project for Bement, but I’m really looking forward to getting involved in some more local projects.” And while he anxiously awaits his chance to continue his project on Bordeaux, Dakkan’s mind keeps returning to Italy. To him, it feels like Italy is in his blood. “I was born in Switzerland, so Europe has always felt like a second home.
One of my first documentaries in Italy was about artisans and chefs and craftspeople. And then I returned for a second documentary about all the different regions of Italy. It just always feels like there are amazing experiences just waiting for me in that part of Europe.” One of those experiences involved going back to the country where he was born. “We were in Switzerland shooting multi-generational Gruyere cheese makers. It’s this special kind that’s made only in these old copper pots heated with a wood fire underneath. It’s such a special thing to just film these people milk their cows every morning, separate the cream, boil the milk.”
“Whether it’s old couples picking olives from a grove climbing ladders they made themselves or fishermen off the Amalfi coast, we forget that these are their everyday lives to these people. It’s such an honor and a privilege to get to be a fly on the wall for an evening.”
