FRANKFORD -- Caitlyn Kunz's family has a long, decorated history with the New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show.

FRANKFORD -- Caitlyn Kunz's family has a long, decorated history with the New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show.

Her great-grandmother, Catherine Guirreri, became involved with the fair shortly after moving to the Tilting Rock Farm in Lafayette as a young girl in 1922. Her grandmother, Ann Guirreri Cutler, earned the titles of Miss Lafayette and Queen of the Fair in 1962. Tiffany Cutler Kunz, her mother, was named Rabbit Queen in 1987 for her work with the 4-H Club.

Given the family's pedigree, it seemed inevitable that Caitlyn, 18, would also be active in the fair's festivities. She followed in her grandmother's footsteps by winning Miss Lafayette 2017, and though she ultimately fell just short in this year's Queen of the Fair competition, finishing as first runner-up, Kunz has made an impact on the fair in another unique way: by creating an hour-long documentary about the history and evolution of farming over the years.

The movie, which is being shown throughout the 10 days of the fair in the Snook Agricultural Museum, was Kunz's final project for her honors media class at High Point Regional High School this year. She had taken video classes since her freshman year, and the project was her chance to show off the skills she had learned during her tenure.

As luck would have it, Joan Smith, president of the Sussex County Agricultural Society and a special education teacher at High Point, had an idea for a topic that would combine Kunz's love of video with her passion for the fair.

"Joan Smith actually asked me, �Would you be willing to do a video? I have a couple of older-generation farmers that I would like to hear their stories,'?" Kunz recalled, "so I was like, �Yeah, sure!'?"

Smith gave Kunz a list of longtime Sussex County residents and members of the county's Agricultural Society, and Kunz said she spent about four or five months interviewing and editing the footage into a documentary. She asked the participants about life growing up on a farm, including special traditions they had, hardships they experienced and animals they owned.

"I got to see such variations of all the stories," Kunz said, "from someone that grew up helping their grandfather on the farm to someone who was a farmer's wife, so it was really nice."

For the project, Kunz interviewed Fred Hough of Wantage, Vivian Hough of Lafayette, Barret Dalrymple of Branchville, Martin Little of Sussex Borough, Phoebe Shotwell of Green, Lois Wright of Sussex Borough, and Nick Feenstra of Lafayette, who passed away in May, shortly after being interviewed. She also used a video of Guirreri, that was taped many years ago, to get additional information.

After talking to the subjects, Kunz began the time-consuming process of sifting through the lengthy tapes for information she could use in her film.

"It took me probably about two hours to conduct just the raw-footage interview, and then I had to go back and edit everything," she said. "I condensed it down to probably about 20, 25 minutes for each person from their two-hour interview."

Kunz was able to complete her final project before school let out, but with so many other people set to view it in the Snook Museum, she wanted all the footage to look as crisp as possible.

"That was the goal, to finish it by the end of the year, but I wanted to make sure it was perfect because I knew it was going to be played at the fair," she said. "I have the editing software at home, so I fixed up some small, minor things that were bothering me."

Once Kunz was satisfied with her film, she sent it to the fair, where it has been played on a loop for passersby since Friday and will continue each day until the fair ends today.

Even though Smith was the one who suggested the project, she had no idea how in-depth Kunz would go with her interviews.

"It's much more than I expected," she said. "Her conversations with (the subjects) went into a lot of different directions ... It was great. I was really happy with the way it turned out."

The video is the latest in a long list of accomplishments at the state fair for Kunz, who first became involved with the Bit by Bit 4-H Club when she was just seven years old. After several years of showing horses on behalf of the club, she became a member of the Caprician Club, which educates the public about goats, in 2011. Her efforts with the group resulted in her being named Caprician Princess in 2016 before competing for Queen of the Fair this year.

Kunz is attending Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., this fall and plans to major in broadcast communication, her mother said.

Smith was happy Kunz lent her film expertise to the state fair this year before heading off to college, as the opportunity to hear first-person accounts from senior farmers is exceedingly rare these days.

"You don't get these chances all the time," Smith said, "and I'm really happy she was able to do it."