As soon as graduation wrapped up at Colorado State University, John Barnhardt took off his cap and gown, put on his Lucky Joe’s shirt and went to work in Old Town.
He’d just received his bachelor’s degree in English and wanted to be a street poet like Charles Bukowski, who wrote “Barfly.” And when he was at work, the owner, Joe Vader, called out, “Yo Barnfly, what’s up?”
Barnhardt could only respond with, “Joe, if I can even get out of your bar, I’m going to name my production company that.” And then, once he moved back to Fort Collins, Colorado, after some time living in Charleston, South Carolina, and teaching, Barnfly Productions was born.
He said his love of movies started when he was a boy watching “The Road Warrior” with his dad. From that initial passion, Barnhardt began to work his way from the bottom to creating films full of meaning and emotion, and he won an Emmy along the way.
“If in five years we’re seeing a world where it’s close to equal coverage and close to equal attendance, maybe we’ve done the job that we were hoping to do.” –Jacob Faulkner, Barnfly Productions crew member
With help from a mentor during early stages of his career, Barnhardt learned how to tell a story in fast-paced, documentarian style. All of this lead him back to CSU, where he would produce “An Open Door: Temple Grandin” in 2023 and work his way into sports with the film “Undersized,” featuring former CSU women’s basketball player McKenna Hofschild.
“Football, men’s basketball — they get everything,” Barnhardt said. “They get everybody to shine the light on (them), which is understandable. We want to take on the responsibility of keeping the light shining bright on female athletes.”
Before “Undersized” was fully underway, Barnhardt and his crew originally planned to feature CSU and current WNBA coach Becky Hammon, using Hofschild as a source to speak about Hammon. But after the first interview with Hofschild, her story and attitude changed the film’s direction.
As Barnhardt described, Hofschild was the “coolest person around.” Soon, one of Barnfly Productions members, Jacob Faulkner, came up with the name “Undersized,” which started the beginning of something incredible when it came to Barnfly Productions’ work in sports.
“Anytime people were talking about her as being distinguished, they’d be like, ‘She’s really good, but she’s undersized, she’s small’,” Faulkner said. “So that was kind of the thing we were focusing on with her, was just that she was a beast despite not being this prototypical athlete.”
For the Barnfly crew, it wasn’t about the glitz and glamour of what they were making, but rather than the impact their movies left.
In fact, Barnhardt said he would ask himself: Did it have an effect on the family? Did it have an effect on the athletes? Did it widen their views a little bit to incorporate women’s sports among the rest? If the answer was yes, the film did its job.
“A girl came up to me — she was 10 — and said, ‘I saw your movie, I’m going to start playing basketball again,’” Barnhardt said. “To me, I’m like, ‘What else does it need to do?’ You know? So seeing … those parents and the athletes could be just enough for me to make another (movie).”
And another movie they made.
“We recognized the impact that we were starting to move towards of (covering) female scientists; now we’re doing these athlete,” Barnhardt said. “So after ‘Undersized,’ then we did the volleyball movie.”
Barnfly Productions shifted its focus toward CSU volleyball and began to feature the star player of the 2025 season: Malaya Jones.
Jones was an anomaly in terms of what she was able to produce on the court. She not only led in her physical ability but was a leader on the team. The Rams won the Mountain West tournament against San Jose State and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Texas A&M.
Shortly after the season ended, Jones had her chance to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference and took it, announcing on Instagram that she would play her final season for SMU, leaving Barnfly Productions to form a new documentary angle.
But the 2024 team was full of fifth-years who worked to become powerhouses. And just a few months after the season ended, “Above the Net” premiered, giving audience members a glimpse into a team that grew together — not only through skill but in a family manner.
“It’s really important to tell the stories that aren’t being told enough,” Faulkner said. “We are more than happy to go do the football and the men’s basketball stories, and there’s interesting stories within those, … but there’s also tons of gaps in there. … If in five years we’re seeing a world where it’s close to equal coverage and close to equal attendance, maybe we’ve done the job that we were hoping to do.”
Barnfly Productions makes it a point to show up whether it’s a practice or game, pushing each of its members to come back to the studio with the best possible content. Because for them, it’s a competition and an expectation.
If one person gets great content, Barnhardt said he sends the next person out and expects them to get even better content, as there is no second place, only first last place.
After climbing his way up from the bottom, Barnhardt made himself a resource to students, giving them opportunities that he otherwise might not have had. The film industry is a tough one to enter, and he wants to set crew members up for success.
“We bring in people with diverse perspectives, and a lot of us may have different goals, but a space like this is going to empower us to achieve those regardless of where you’re going,” crew member Boyan Bashovski said. “That’s what makes this place so special, is that people come here with an intention and a goal, and they want to achieve that.”
Although Barnfly Productions includes younger members, Barnhardt echoed that it’s never too late to begin chasing a passion. He said he was once sitting on the steps of Clark, thinking, “I will never be able to do this, there’s no chance for me to do this.”
But he found his way through the twists and turns of his time in Charleston and his work with Trident Technical College. He’s created not only a name for himself but formed a production company that houses a multitude of opportunities for students.
“It’s not how you start — it’s how you finish,” Barnhardt said. “I think some people think that, ‘Oh, man, I’m turning 30. I’m kind of a burnout,’ or, ‘I’m turning 40 and 50 and all that.’ But you can really reinvent yourself. You have an opportunity to reinvent yourself every single day, but you kind of come into your own several times over those decades.”
As for Barnhardt, he said he’s working to make Northern Colorado one of the biggest film areas in five to 10 years.
But for now, he said he is working on his next movie featuring the current women’s basketball team, focusing on Marta Leimane, Hannah Ronsiek and Jadyn Fife, which will be shown alongside Barnfly Productions’ most recent volleyball film: “The 50.”
“It’s going to be my best movie I’ve ever made,” Barnhardt said. “I can tell you that right now, I’m going to make sure of it.”
Reach Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on social media @sophgwebb.
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