Educational Media Reviews Online

Harvest conscientiously illustrates the incredible manual exertion put forth by winegrowers to cultivate their vineyards in order to produce wine. This is manifest through director John Beck’s coverage of 5 different family-run vineyards in Sonoma County, California for their 2011 harvest. The documentary candidly articulates the culture, lifestyle, and challenges that family-run wineries endure to produce excellent wine. Challenges that are cited include protecting the grape vines from rainstorms, grape rot, and wild animals, as well as ensuring quality labor relations.

Further, Harvest extensively highlights Mexican immigrant field workers tending the vineyards with primary focus given to an all Mexican female grape picking crew. The documentary’s emphasis on the historical and present circumstance for both immigrant vineyard workers and family owned wineries affords the viewer a better sense of proportion on the entire process of wine production. The information in Harvest is presented in a conversational tone which makes this film accessible to a broader audience.

The documentary’s technical merit is worthwhile as the camera captures the engaging action of vineyard labor and provides well-arranged angles of face-to-face interviews with a variety of colorful personalities. This film is educationally most suitable for those interested in better understanding vineyard cultivation, wine production, entrepreneurship, and the circumstances of immigrant laborers in the United States. This film is most appropriate for high school, public, and college/university library collections.

Awards:

• Winner of the 2012 Best Director for the Yosemite International Film Festival