15th
Hungry Filmmakers: the films
This is happening tonight and I can’t wait to see a packed theater see these films. It sucked to have to turn down so many would-be ticket buyers as we reached capacity and sold out a week ago. In retrospect, this was a bigger event than we had predicted and we didn’t give ourselves enough time as organizers to truly execute; I would have liked to distribute programs (hello?) with info on each of the films. But the filmmakers are in the same boat, so to speak, and since most of them have not even finished their films’ rough cuts yet (it’s a sneak preview-like screening event, before the films are actually “done”) they only just now produced these blurbs for us. After reading them, I can’t blame anyone though. They all sound amazing.
WHAT’S ORGANIC ABOUT “ORGANIC?” (Shelley Rogers) rings the alarm for the need to develop an ecological consciousness. The film illustrates that the organic food debate extends well beyond personal choice and into the realm of social responsibility.
Each of the film’s characters is intimately connected to the organic world; they’re farmers, activists, and scientists. While many folks can easily endorse “organic,” the characters in the film take the discussion beyond just shopping for another eco-label. As we glimpse into each of their lives, we see how organic agriculture has the potential to solve many of our environmental and health problems. The film will explore how organic farming can be used as a soil and air protection system, a healthy solution to toxic pollution, and an innovative means to combat global warming.
GROWN IN DETROIT (Mascha and Manifred Poppenk)
Teen moms becoming urban farmers. Utopia? Not in Detroit. Nature is taking over the city and the new generation is being taught to harvest its profit. The hometown of mass production is turning green once again. In the midst of the city, pregnant teens are being taught agricultural skills at the farm that sits next to their school. Through this process, the girls are learning about the value of independence and planning a better life. “Back to the roots”, is a simple yet effective solution for a city that has to start all over again and perhaps a lesson to be learned for the rest of the world.
FACES FROM THE NEW FARM (Lara Sheets, Kat Shiffer and Liz Tylander)
In the summer of 2007, Lara Sheets, Kat Shiffer and Liz Tylander formed Garden Cycles and embarked on a three-month bicycle tour to document food-producing projects from Washington, D.C., to Montreal, Canada. Their objective on this 1,600 mile trip was to use people powered transport to explore local alternatives to industrial agriculture. Along the way, they met youth living in low-income neighborhoods who knew about nutrition and how to grow and sell food at their local farmers’ markets, as well as recent immigrants and young adults involved in the growing food movement and interested in becoming farmers. Their documentary profiles the “New Farmer”, a critical profession in this day and age when issues of nutrition, oil consumption, climate change, and international trade are becoming increasingly significant. It portrays the current shift in farming away from industrial practices and monoculture toward sustainable practices and diversity as a positive trend to be shared and celebrated.
THE GREENHORNS (Severine von Tscharner Fleming)
The Greenhorns is a documentary film that explores the lives of America’s young farming community — its spirit, practices, and needs. As the nation experiences a groundswell of interest in sustainable lifestyles, we see the promising beginnings of an agricultural revival. Young farmers’ efforts feed us safe food, conserve valuable land, and reconstitute communities split apart by strip malls. It is the filmmakers’s hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can build the case for those considering a career in agriculture — to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming.
TRUCK FARM & BIG RIVER (Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney)
An excerpt from “Truck Farm,” our short film about urban agriculture. What we’re showing is called “Episode 3” because we’ve been releasing short excerpts from the film on the web, but it will be part of a larger film in which my old dodge truck acts as a “vehicle” (!) for exploring quirky but instructive urban farms. This is the first showing of “Episode 3,” which is called “Save a truck, plant a rooftop.”
A trailer for our short film “Big River,” released this fall. It’s a companion film to “King Corn,” in which we explore the ecological implications of one acre of Iowa corn-land. Big River is in the middle of a 100-screening “Harvest Tour” this winter.
