There have been a wealth of movies produced in recent years about returning happily to our sustainable, food-producing roots. From a Wall Street investment banker cashing out to become a “bullish farmer” to abandoned Detroit residents reclaiming urban wastelands, to young people choosing careers as small-scale farmers, there’s a new “back to the land” movement under way.
The Bullish Farmer tells the story of Wall Street investment banker John “John Boy” Ubaldo, who quits his job after a good friend is killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Purchasing 185 acres of land in upstate New York, Ubaldo dreams of a peaceful life using sustainable farming methods to raise food for his family and community. But almost immediately, Ubaldo’s dream runs into the reality of Big Ag corporate farming practices and policies. The reluctant Ubaldo finds himself transformed into a passionate and outspoken activist, lobbying for animal rights, preservation of crop diversity, GMO labeling, and the reduction of chemical fertilizers to help save small farms, the backbone of rural America.
Directed and co-produced by Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Ken Marsolais, joined by co-producer and writer Nancy Vick, the filmmakers hope The Bullish Farmer will inspire awareness about the importance of the food we eat, gain support for small farms.
Released in 2017, the film is still making the festival circuit, but has already won Best Documentary at the Golden Door International Film Festival, Hoboken International Film Festival, IndieFEST Film Festival, QueensWorld Film Festival, and the Jersey Shore Film Festival, and was named an Official Selection at a dozen or more film festivals coast to coast. Visit the film’s website to find out where, when, and how to view the film.
The Greenhorns is a documentary by farmer-turned-filmmaker Severine von Tscharner Fleming, who spent two years traveling the U.S., meeting and mobilizing a network of young farmers resettling the land. The Greenhorns is a tribute to their grit and entrepreneurial spirit, an exploration of sustainable agriculture through interviews with leading spokespeople like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, and a call to reclaim our national soil. The 90-minute feature is the culmination of well over 200 hours of original footage from all regions of the United States, as well as original animation by young urban farmer and artist Brooke Budner, and rare agricultural archival footage from the Prelinger Archives. Ultimately, The Greenhorns shows us how farmers can move out of the margins to which they’ve recently been assigned and back to the heart of the American food landscape.
The Greenhorns can be rented or purchased on Amazon and other platforms. The movie has also evolved into a movement, with all kinds of information—including episodes from the film—on its website. Young people power!
Urban Roots is a 2011 documentary chronicling the spontaneous emergence of urban farming in the wake of industrial collapse in the city of Detroit. The film follows a small group of dedicated citizens who have started an urban environmental movement that is transforming empty lots, abandoned factory yards, and blocks of vacant company housing into urban food gardens. Feeling that the corporate agricultural system has failed them, delivering mostly fast food and mini-mart fare, with few actual grocery stores, farmers markets, or other real food options, the people of Detroit have taken on the enormous task of changing this for themselves. Urban Roots shows us that the best in us can prevail in the most difficult of times and in the most difficult of places. This growing movement of urban farmers is changing the way people think about food-and life in the “D.” It may have taken men like Henry Ford, William Durant, and Lee Iacocca to build Detroit, but as Urban Roots shows, it’s a bunch of strong-willed self-taught urban farmers who are saving it.
Urban Roots can be streamed or rented on Vimeo and purchased for $10 on Amazon.
Seeds of Permaculture is a film made to encourage people to join the movement to sustainably produce their own food, particularly in the tropics, particularly as climate change wreaks havoc with weather patterns. The filmmakers offer the film for free on their website: http://www.seedsofpermaculture.org/. Their next project will be on urban permaculture. Visit their website to help them make that dream a reality, too.
Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective is a feature-length documentary showcasing an array of permaculture projects and people and translating the breadth of permaculture as an ecologically based design solution into something that can be understood by an equally diverse audience. For those familiar, it will be a call to action and a glimpse into the kinds of projects and solutions already under way. For those unfamiliar, it will be an introduction to a new way of relating to the Earth. For everyone, it will be a reminder that humans are capable of being planetary healing forces.
During the spring, summer, and fall of 2013, filmmakers Costa Boutsikaris and Emmett Brennan visited more than 20 permaculture projects in rural, suburban, and urban environments throughout the Northeast and Midwestern United States. Traveling in a diesel Volkswagen van converted to run on waste vegetable oil and equipped with an 80-volt solar panel, they created a renewable energy film vehicle that could allow for mobile editing and camera charging.
Inhabit is available to rent or buy on Vimeo and other platforms.
Video from KarmaTube
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