Following last year's devastating tornado, Joplin native and documentary filmmaker Erica Tremblay returned to the town to visit her family and friends and to see how she could help rebuild her hometown.
After witnessing the destruction caused by the natural disaster, Tremblay's producing partner suggested that they get together a crew and document the stories of the people she knew.
The documentary "Heartland" is the end result, and Tremblay appears on "Early Start" this morning to discuss her work and to explain the back story behind the film.
Tremblay says that while the film began as a disaster documentary, it quickly turned into a story about the human spirit, and how it heals after tragedy.
While she says that working on the project helped her heal, Tremblay explains that it also kept her in the thick of the disaster every day, reminding her about just how much her neighbors had lost in the tragedy.