BRATTLEBORO — Strolling of the Heifers will present a free mini film festival, featuring two acclaimed farm-related films, on Sunday, Nov. 6, beginning at 4 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre on Main Street.
Along with the film showing, many area CSAs (community-support agriculture operations), will offer samples and preview their 2012 season.
CSAs typically offer a share of their produce (or meat and dairy products, in some cases) to consumers who sign up in advance to subscribe to a season-long stream of a farm's abundance. The CSAs at the Filmfest will explain their offerings and take advance registrations for the 2012 season.
Two films will be presented: Lilac Ridge: Life on a Family Farm by Marlboro filmmakers Kate Purdie and Andy Reichsman, and The Greenhorns by Severine von Tscharner Fleming.
The films will be introduced by Roger Allbee, former Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, and filmmakers will be available after the showings to answer questions.
Lilac Ridge portrays activities at a small, third-generation family farm in West Brattleboro.
The current generation of farmers, Ross and Amanda Thurber, with the support of the previous generation, Stu and Bev Thurber, have made a lot of changes. What was once a dairy farm is now also an organic-vegetable-growing, direct-to-restaurants-wholesaling, cut-flower-supplying, farmstand-purveying, egg-producing, farmers'-market-retailing operation.
The Thurbers have also transformed the farm to attain certified organic status.
The film theorizes that the very aspects of Vermont's landscape and climate that never really allowed for super-sized farming here turn out to position the state as a place to implement many of the current ideas about how sustainable agricultural practices might transform food production and distribution in this country.
Lilac Ridge is one farm where that is happening. “[The Thurbers'] deeply felt beliefs and astute observational insights influence every frame of the film,” organizers say.
The Greenhorns won the Stroll's Farm/Food Film Festival in June during Strolling of the Heifers Weekend, and the film has been shown at many festivals around the world, garnering a slew of awards. It documents the emergence of a new cultural icon: the young American farmer.
The project began in November 2007 when activist and young farmer Severine von Tscharner Fleming, then 26, graduated college and hit the road in her retrofitted station wagon. She was looking for a few acres of her own to farm. Along the way, she started recording the stories and visions of fellow young farmers in America.
These young 21st century farmers are the “greenhorns,” a diverse and sophisticated group of growers. They count themselves among punky urban gardeners, radical Christians, ex-suburbanites, industrial designers, former teachers, children of migrant farm workers, inner city kids, and many other groups.
Collectively, the farmers documented in the film have overcome innumerable obstacles.
They have been kicked off rental property only to fight for land on rooftops and in between multi-lane highways. They have lost crops and money, but found a partner. They have gone years without a day off but discovered a passion. Through these and many other hardships, these greenhorns still optimistically strive to feed their communities and steward a piece of the earth.
For more information on the film fest, contact Beth Kiendl by phone (802-258-1588) or by email.