Educational Media Reviews Online

Following several farmers over the seasons covering the highs and lows of emotions, finances, and plantings, this is an absolutely beautiful, heartfelt documentary. As a reviewer, I find this agricultural documentary unique in the way the filmmakers follow the same four farms for an entire year as they use different practices managing different size farms. Viewers will learn the realities of farming and learn how different farms manage the unpredictable nature of farming. The issues discussed and explored with farmers and agricultural scientists include plant breeding, crop diversity, organic farming, green manure, seed exchange, and various techniques for conventional farms. The film will be especially appealing to high school and college aged viewers because it records a monthly video diary of one young farmer and the co-op that employees him. While set in Canada, this documentary is relevant to U.S. viewers as the crops, finances, and realities are similar.

Libraries with documentary collections on agriculture should add this one. This is an excellent pick for community showings where community supported agriculture (CSAs) is popular or young adults volunteer on local farms. For classroom use, instructors can skip certain months to highlight the topics relevant to their discussions using the “Scene Selection” menu. For one-hour classes, you can skip March and November with very little impact to the storyline. For very tight class schedules, classes could view the monthly journals over time and consider skipping also October and one summer month, but this will require extra details from the instructor.

Both the streaming and DVD versions were reviewed. Closed captioning and the scene menu are only available from the DVD version.

Awards:

2019 Best of the Fest, Colorado Environmental Film Festival; 2019 Utopia Vision Award, Utopia Film Festival; 2019 Best Documentary, Big Water Film Festival; 2019 Peter C. Rollins Award for the Best Documentary Film, Popular Culture Association