Gerard Basset Foundation
Film Direction · Film Production
275 people on earth hold this title.
He is chasing 276.
The Master Sommelier exam is one of the most demanding professional qualifications in the world. A test of palate, precision, and years of preparation, passed by a vanishingly small number of people. This film follows Jarrett Buffington's attempt to become one of them, made for the Gerard Basset Foundation.
The Brief
The Gerard Basset Foundation supports scholars pursuing the hardest qualifications in wine. Jarrett Buffington among them, attempting to become one of only 276 people on earth to hold the Master Sommelier title. The brief was to celebrate that pursuit honestly. To profile the calibre of person the Foundation backs, encourage others to consider the same challenge, and put a face to an organisation working to build real diversity and inclusion into the world of fine wine and rare spirits.
The film was shot across multiple locations in the US. I directed and edited the entire production remotely, hiring and assembling a crew on the ground and directing every setup over video calls, a decision made to maximise the budget without compromising the creative vision.
Film Approach
Don't dramatise the exam. Celebrate the person facing it. The number does the explaining on its own, the film's only job was to earn the right to sit next to it.
Jarrett grew up in Houston, Texas, and found his way into wine almost by accident. It's a career that's since taken him from Texas restaurants to the sommelier floor of Café Sydney, where he now works, mentors, and continues studying toward the Master Sommelier title.
He's built a reputation not just for his palate but for the tasting groups, mentorship, and generosity he brings to the wine community around him. Someone as invested in bringing others up as he is in his own pursuit.
This film was commissioned around his Golden Vines Taylor's Port Diversity Scholarship, awarded in support of that pursuit.
Follow Jarrett at https://www.instagram.com/jarrettwine/
Jarrett Buffington
From a remote crew across the US to a scholarship night in front of the people who made it possible, the film became a way to put a face to what the Gerard Basset Foundation stands for. Changing the world of wine, one scholar at a time.
Documentary Filmmaking · Film Direction · Film Production · Cinematography · Post-Production
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