Food and Country(2024)

The Times of Harvey Milk(en)

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

Small Wonders(en)

Filmed over a span of ten years by Tally Abecassis, SMALL WONDERS makes us pay attention to the sorts of business we might not notice anymore. It tells the tale of true working class – a watchmaker, a photographer, and a hardware store owner. Their businesses don’t issue flyers. They don’t have light-up signs that have been carefully designed by a marketing firm. And if you think you’ll find a computer anywhere near their operation, forget it. In a way, they are relics of a bygone time…doing what they can to hold their places in communities that are ready to move on without them.

King Corn(en)

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

Dominion(en)

Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.

We Who Dwell in the Mountains Cannot Be Blamed for Being There(de)

A documentary about Swiss mountain folk.

We're Here to Stay(en)

Farm families in Lestock, Saskatchewan, have pooled their resources so that rising operating costs will not drive them off their land. By pooling their land, their equipment, their livestock, and farming as a cooperative, they are able to live as they choose, to maintain their standard of living, and even to have some spare time left over to enjoy. An engaging look at a novel approach to big-scale farming.

A Life on the Farm(en)

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

L'Amour vache(fr)

The Milk System(de)

Milk is Big Business. Behind the innocent appearances of the white stuff lies a multi-billion euro industry, which perhaps isn't so innocent…

It's Hard By Oneself...(pl)

The documentary takes the viewer to the Polish countryside of the mid-1970s. Andrzej, Leszek, Eugeniusz, Ryszard and Jerzy are young men who dream of finding their other half. The film's protagonists have advertised in newspapers and talk frankly and without inhibition about their search and the dilemmas it involves. The picture is complemented by the statements of their parents, who watch their sons' efforts to start a family with love but also concern. The film also gives an insight into the problems farmers face - not only love but also hard work on the land awaits the chosen one of their hearts. "Either get married or quit this farm", "What's one to do on a farm?" - say the characters in the film. The countryside is not a place made for living alone.

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness(en)

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

Mwanza Youth(en)

In partnership with the MasterCard Foundation and local partner Mwanza Youth and Children Network, the young reporters produce and broadcast radio shows that illustrate how farming can lead to individual prosperity and country-wide economic growth and teach the business and finance skills necessary to manage these small agricultural enterprises.

Havakeen Lunch(en)

After eighteen years of operating the favourite lunch counter in Manitoba's Interlake region, Ellen and Martin Kihn have retired. A poignant look at the last day, The Kihns, their friends and their customers, demanding rural life and the place the disappearing institution of the country cafe plays in these people's lives. A tribute to the cafes found in small towns.

Sleep Furiously(en)

Set in a small farming community in mid Wales, a place where Koppel's parents - both refugees - found a home. This is a landscape and population that is changing rapidly as small scale agriculture is disappearing and the generation who inhabited a pre-mechanised world is dying out. Much influenced by his conversations with the writer Peter Handke, the film maker leads us on a poetic and profound journey into a world of endings and beginnings; a world of stuffed owls, sheep and fire.

I'm Just A Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against USDA(en)

"I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice" chronicles the injustices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, also known as ‘the last plantation,’ and the lived experiences of Black farmers who chose to fight against discrimination.

On Her Own(en)

Nancy Prebilich and her sister live with their parents on a farm that has been in their family for five generations. With the unexpected death of both parents, the sisters are left to keep this dying farm out of foreclosure amidst the many perils faced by America’s farmers.

NA China(fr)

The implantation of African traders in Guangzhou is a recent phenomenon, on which Marie Voignier reports through her interlinking portraits of Jackie, Julie, Shanny who have come to set up their business on site. Amidst the monstrous accumulation of merchandise on the endless markets of the megacity, the film follows these African businesswomen grappling with the globalised Chinese economy.

If it Won’t Hold Water, it Surely Won’t Hold a Goat(en)

"If it Won’t Hold Water, it Surely Won’t Hold a Goat" is an intimate meditation on the subversive nature of goats and their effect on the people who spend time with them. Centered on the story of the legendary Goat Man - a nomadic figure who spent most of his life walking the roads of Georgia with a wagon pulled by a herd of goats - this experimental documentary weaves together an interview with a goat farmer, footage of the daily rituals Johnson enacted with her own herd, and a poem about the Goat Man’s experimental and spectacular life.

Sustainable Style(en)

A look into the world of sustainable fashion with Emma Gorton-Elicott the owner of Fruit Salad, a Bristol based independent sustainable & slow fashion business. Emma discusses the difference between slow and sustainable fashion and what you can do to curate a sustainable wardrobe.

CircleSpeak(en)

Shot in Southern England over the course of six weeks by a crew of three American filmmakers, CircleSpeak offers a nuanced look at the passions and beliefs of the people immersed in the crop circle phenomenon during the season of 2001. This feature-length documentary presents interviews with serious “researchers”, self-proclaimed “hoaxers”, local farmers and villagers who are all, in one way or another, involved in this strange and compelling summer spectacle taking place year after year.