Sommersby
Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.
Mémé
Adapted from famous French actor Philippe Torreton’s best-seller, GRANDMA is the portrait of the actor’s grandmother: a modest, unique but universal Norman peasant. Enriched with amateur films, nourished by major historical events, GRANDMA also tells the story of the end of a world, that of the countryside of our grandmothers, before the abyss of modernity.
Little Forest
A young woman leaves the city to return to her hometown in the countryside. Seeking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, she becomes self-sufficient in a bid to reconnect with nature.
The Informant!
A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion.
Little Forest: Summer/Autumn
Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.
Kiss the Ground
Sheds light on an alternative approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.
Forced Renewables
In Lopera (Jaén), the ecological transition has turned into a nightmare: centuries-old olive groves are being uprooted to make way for massive photovoltaic plants, in an unfair battle between powerful corporations and the local community. Through firsthand testimonies, striking visuals, and an analysis of the current energy model, Forced Renewables reveals how progress, when poorly planned and disconnected from rural life, can lead to an unprecedented ecological, social, and economic disaster.
King Corn
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.
On the Hunt
Twenty-year-old Anaïs works with her father on a farm that is struggling to keep operating. When their fertilizer distribution machine, borrowed from the farming cooperative, is stolen, Anaïs reacts, and fights in order to continue working, and to keep her father, on the brink of giving up and selling their farm, afloat. She also grows closer with a seasonal worker who she suspects is behind the robbery.
Canada Vignettes: The Move
In this short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series, a Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use. The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.
Little Forest: Winter/Spring
Ichiko bakes a cake for an end-of-year party with her friends. In the depths of winter, making mochi and curry keeps the people of Komori warm. Later, spring brings thoughts of her absent mother as well as rice planting and sakura, and she begins to think of leaving Komori behind again.
Kuthuoosi
A well-educated youngster drops his plans of settling down in the US to develop agriculture in his village, but faces threat from many people.
Alien Hunter
Government agents find evidence of extraterrestrial life at the South Pole.
Milk Men
As the global economics of dairy farming has winnowed out most small and medium-sized dairies, the surviving farmers confront pressures to intensify production, even as they find that getting bigger presents new problems.
Le Bled
A young French woman inherits her uncle's property in Algeria, and finds herself plotted against by her envious cousins, but also romanced by a handsome but previously irresponsible young man from a neighbouring farm.
Himalayan Road: A New Frontier
Once free to farm in the most remote part of the Himalayas, today the people labor on the ambitious road to Zanskar, which will soon connect both sides of their valley. Their days are devoted to breaking rocks with sledgehammers, dynamiting sections of cliffs and smoothing piles of sand and gravel by hand. Along with impoverished laborers from India, they toil endlessly to complete this colossal project designed to modernize the region, and it comes at a huge cost. They’ve already relinquished much of their land and herds to focus on the project, and their lives are filled with uncertainty. They worry about their future when the road is finally finished, and when the world can easily access their region. There will be unexpected freedom and opportunities to live in greater comfort… but the harmonious and delicate balance they’ve achieved over generations - despite the extreme climate - will be lost.
One Man and his Cow
An Algerian man's life-long dream finally comes true when he receives an invitation to take his cow Jacqueline to the Paris International Agriculture Fair.
Balam Balam
Afskærmet
Profession : Agricultrices
Four women farmers working in the Champagne-Ardennes region talk about their working conditions, the part they play in running the farm, the distribution of jobs between husband and wife and the lack of status of their work... They emphasise how denial of the essential role they play in running the farm has led them to demand specific recognition of their job. Presentation of the Women's Association for Agricultural Development (AFDA).