Journalism students helped bring Robert Greene’s ‘Too Much Sugar’ to life — now it’s premiering at Venice Film Festival
Shooting a scene on the set of “Too Much Sugar.” Courtsy of Hannah Schuh.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (Aug. 28, 2026) — Robert Greene, Filmmaker-in-Chief at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism, is once again making a splash with a new documentary. “Too Much Sugar” — which follows two friends in Moberly, Missouri, as they try to make a film about fatherhood — premieres at the prestigious Venice Film Festival on Sept. 3.
Learn more about the film here.
As he has done with prior films, including Netflix’s “Procession,” Greene incorporated the film’s production into the center’s curriculum. With “Too Much Sugar,” he took it up a notch, inviting numerous students across three graduation classes at the Missouri School of Journalism to fill a variety of roles in the production.
“We’ve really relied on the Murray Center to help create this film,” Greene said. “The students were completely involved throughout, including last fall, when we turned it into an entire semester lesson for the second-year students. We brought in the many heads of the departments to come and work directly with students about producing and directing and everything.”
One product of that process is that Method M Films, the center’s in-house production company, will be featured in the opening credits. It’s the first time that Method M has been credited in one of Greene’s films and marks a significant step forward for the production company and the center as a whole.
“Our students are so skillful and motivated that finding ways to include them is not in any way onerous,” said Sebastián Martínez Valdivia, Executive Director of the Murray Center and an Associate Producer on the film. “And we’ve just been getting better at what we do as well, in terms of being able to facilitate students’ enthusiasm and passion and drive. It’s really helpful because students are hearing something in a classroom, but they’re also seeing and experiencing it practically on the set of the film.”
JJ Measer, BJ ’25, and Hannah Schuh, BJ ’26, were two of the students who were there from the beginning. Schuh assisted with lighting and served as a Digital Image Technician (DIT) — helping to back up and organize the footage from each day’s shoot — before becoming an all-purpose Production Assistant when the production kicked into a higher gear.
“It was great because I got to see all the angles of how it worked and not just stand there and watch,” Schuh said. “To actually have my hands on the project made me so much prouder of the end result.”
The experience, which continued in parallel with her work on her own capstone film, directly informed her creative approach to making a film with limited resources.
“Just seeing what could be done with a small crew and a small budget made me feel more empowered in making my film,” she added. “But I was also inspired by what Robert does specifically with mixing fiction and nonfiction. In my film, there are lots of reenactments involved. My film is about my own memory loss and how I can’t remember 18 years of my life, and I cast my sister to play memories I can’t remember. So it’s fiction, it’s nonfiction.”
Her film, “I Hope We Remember This,” went on to win the Special Jury Award for Achievement in First-Person Filmmaking at this year’s Stronger than Fiction Film Festival, which screens graduating students’ films at the historic Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Missouri.
Measer’s time on “Too Much Sugar” started in a similar fashion, with him filling the role of First Assistant Camera — the person responsible for setting up and maintaining the focus of the camera — and also performing DIT duties.
But when conversations with Greene revealed Measer’s desire to land an assistant editor role on his path to building a filmmaking career, Greene did not hesitate to offer him the job.
“I’m working with Robert to organize all our files, make sure that we have everything we need, and then I’m also sort of prepping all the video for Robert to edit,” Measer said. There’s just a lot of work that has to be done right after shooting to actually get to the point where you’re cutting material, and that’s kind of where I fill in as the bridge.”
That role will net him a rare credit for someone who just earned his bachelor’s degree last year: assistant editor on an official selection of the Venice Film Festival. It’s also a profound step forward for Measer, who, with the support and encouragement of Greene, Martínez and the center’s growing alumni network, moved to New York last year for a make-or-break run at establishing himself in the industry.
“Moving to New York was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done, but the Murray Center has set me up for so much success there,” he said. “And I would say it was a hundred percent worth it because now I’m going to Venice in a week.”
Indeed, Measer will pay his own way to join Greene, Martínez and the rest of the film’s professional crew for the premiere. It won’t be his first time at a film festival; his capstone film, Pass Time, premiered at True/False Film Fest earlier this year.
But in Venice, he will put at least one face to the many names of students credited on the film — students like Eric Kiekeben, BJ ’26, who, like Measer and Schuh, was part of the group from that very first shoot and recently wrote in a LinkedIn post that “words can’t explain how much this school, and specifically the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism, has changed my life.”
Students like Kyle Button, BJ ’26, who seized the opportunity to serve as Additional Cinematographer for a crucial scene in the film. The list goes on — and it doesn’t end with students. Jonathan Murray himself, the founding donor of the center and a reality television pioneer, came on the film as an executive producer as well.
For Greene, who described the production as “Missouri Method through and through,” the contributions from students and the film’s distinct mid-Missouri flavor add up to something special.
“It’s absolutely insane that Moberly and mid-Missouri are going to Venice,” Greene said. “These are families that films are not usually made about, and I say that as a point of pride because I come from the same milieu as they do. These are the worlds that don’t get shown, and it wouldn’t have happened without finding creative ways to work with the School and with students. So bringing that to Venice — I’m incredibly proud of that.”
Updated: August 28, 2026