Aldo’s Coffee Co. (103-105 Front St., Greenport, 631-213-9353) shared their story in a unique way earlier this year.
Owner Josh Sommer was eager to continue growing the brand when a serendipitous connection was made, spurring a short documentary about the business, released in late May.
The eight-minute film traces the history of Aldo’s while showing how Sommer and head roaster Rae McMahon are committed to preserving the principles the coffee company was founded on in 1987.
In late February, Sommer had shared a shot list with his partners of some video he’d like to get in the shop to share their story visually. Despite never sharing the idea outside of the company, Kojo Films, founded by Trevor Parenteau and Rebecca Chiafullo, reached out the next day asking to film a short documentary about Aldo’s as material for their new business.
“After working on some not-so-great jobs, we decided to do our own thing. We felt that there was a lot missing with local businesses and businesses that might be more regional that have great stories to tell but don’t necessarily have a great way to tell them,” Parenteau says.
They asked nothing of Sommer besides the right to share the video to their website.
“This is something that I always say about Aldo’s: ‘I’m lucky enough that it’s my platform, but it’s also everybody’s platform,’” says Sommer. “It was serendipitous that I needed footage and now I have more than I could ask for.”
Behind the scenes at Aldo’s Coffee Co. (Photo credit: Kojo Films)
Kojo Films, a video production company based in Williston Park, N.Y., shot at Aldo’s for three days over the course of a month, capturing engaging shots of the roasting process, activity in the shop and interviews with Sommer, McMahon and three customers. They pieced together the story into an eight-minute, three-part film.
“This was a way bigger production than I could have ever imagined,” says Sommer. “That being said, we are so lucky, because everybody that’s associated with Aldo’s is rooting for the brand.”
While the process of filming for Aldo’s was already fortuitous, Parenteau and Chiafullo got a true glimpse into the coffee shop’s place in customer’s lives, as a marriage proposal took place on site while they shot the film.
In the documentary, Johnathan Buck, Diogo Martins and Dinni Gordon, three regulars at the coffee shop, tell their stories of how the brand has impacted their life.
“To hear people talk about how much they appreciate the effort [is moving]; we work really hard to make sure people still enjoy what was created almost 40 years ago,” says Sommer.
When Aldo’s shared the film teaser to Instagram it blew up, garnering nearly 100,000 views and an abundance of positivity from the community — even drawing the attention of a United Kingdom production company for a potential Public Broadcasting Service series.
Learn more about Kojo Films and Aldo’s Coffee Co. and watch the short film here.
