screening of ‘the native and the refugee’ in new lebanon ny tomorrow

Abode Farm are holding a screening of Native and the Refugee, a film directed and produced by friends of the farm, tomorrow, October 24th. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny and will take place in the Family Room in Fatah Hall at the Abode of the Message. Fatah is accessible from the central courtyard of the Abode.

Since 2014, Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny have collaborated on The Native and the Refugee, a multi-media documentary project profiling the spaces of the Indian reservation in the United States and Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East. They will give a presentation on their project with an overview of the resonances between American Indian and Palestinian experience, and will then screen a selection of their short films, followed by an open discussion.

Matt Peterson’s writings have appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Evergreen Review, The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, The L, The New Inquiry, and New York Press. In 2014 he completed feature film on the Tunisian insurrection, Scenes from a Revolt Sustained, with a production grant from the Doha Film Institute. He co-edited, with Barney Rosset & Ed Halter, From the Third Eye: The Evergreen Review Film Reader (Seven Stories Press, 2017). He is currently a member of Woodbine in Ridgewood, New York City.

Malek Rasamny is a researcher and filmmaker based in both New York and Beirut whose writings have been published in The Daily Star and Fuse. He’s worked at the Maysles Documentary Center, and was a founding member of the LERFE space in Harlem, the Ground Floor Collective, and Red Channels. He is a regular speaker at the Afikra international monthly series on Arab history and culture, and is currently working on a research project surrounding Druze sovereignty in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.

 

Details:

Tuesday Oct 24 @ 7PM
Abode of the Message, FATAH Family Room
New Lebanon, NY

Location: Abode of the Message, 5 Abode Road in New Lebanon, NY. Follow signs for visitor parking and enter the Fatah building via the central courtyard.

Overnight Lodging:
The Abode has room to host those traveling from out of town for this event. Lodging will be provided in exchange for volunteer work the next morning. Please let them know if you will be needing accommodations!

evolution of organic hits theaters this month!

The world premier of the Evolution of Organic (see our previous post on this film here and here) is finally upon us! You can catch the event at the opening Night of Green Film Fest 2017 on April 20 at the Castro Theatre. Schedule as follows:

6:00pm  ::  Opening Night Reception with Mark Kitchell and Festival filmmakers
7:30pm  ::  Evolution of Organic (Mark Kitchell, USA, 2017, 82 mins)

As the Film Fest surmises, “[The Evolution of Organic] started with a motley crew of back-to-the-landers rejecting industrial farming. It went on to spawn a renewed connection with our food and land. Filmmaker Mark Kitchell (Berkeley in the Sixties; A Fierce Green Fire) presents a celebration of Californian organic farming told by the people that started it all thru to a new generation who continue to reinvent the food system.”

The film will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Mark Kitchell and special guests. Buy tickets here!

call for film submissions for change making tool-kits

Real Food Films is calling for filmmakers to submit projects by April 1st that correspond to the themes of:

• Crafting Public Policies for Public Health: Taking on Big Soda
• Building Power with Food Workers
• Tackling Climate Change Through Food

Selected films will be included in their 2017 Organizing Toolkits, which will be jam-packed with educational materials for groups and individuals interested in working in food system reform.

rural route film tour 2017

The Rural Route ‘Best of/Shorts’ Tour Program
Upcoming Shows:

March 12 – Decorah, IA @ Oneota Film Festival

March 14 – Cedar Rapids, IA @ CSPS

April 6 – Richmond, VA @ James River Film Festival

May 13 – Portland, OR @ Clinton Street Theater

June 3 – Rochester, NY @ The Little Theater

 

This year’s show contains…Réka Bucsi,’s latest animation, Love, featuring red panthers, black horses, and a giant water guy (and has been nabbing masses of awards all around the world)…Black Canaries, Jesse Kreitzer’s stunning, beautifully-shot 1907 period piece about an Iowa mining family’s continuous descent for coal…Jan van IJken’s The Art of Flying, artistically documenting one of the most spectacular sights on Earth involving starlings in Holland…and Ogasawara, Georgian director, Tato Kotetishvili’s whimsical tale of a Dukhabor wedding on the Armerian border…  Check out the full program at https://ruralroutefilms.com/tour/!  

 

Write to tour@ruralroutefilms.com to set up a screening! And filmmakers, please note, Rural Route’s annual CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS closes on March 18!  The best way to submit is via withoutabox(where you’ll save $5 off the already low entry fee).  

sf bay area: celebrate black farmers with a night of films

Interested in learning more about the rich history of black farmers in the US and abroad? Join the good people at Pollinate Farm & Garden, an Oakland-based nursery and urban homestead emporium, for an evening of film celebrating “black hands in the soil.” The night is co-hosted by Farms To Grow, Inc – a non-profit dedicated to supporting black farmers and underserved sustainable farmers around the country.

What: Black Hands in the Soil – A Film Celebration of Black Farming

Where: Pollinate Farm & Garden, 2727 Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland, CA

When: Friday, February 24th, 7-9pm

Cost: Sliding scale donation, no one turned away for a lack of funds!

The feature film is Charlene Gilbert’s “Homecoming” (see an excerpt above!) with several shorter documentaries rounding out the evening. Learn more and purchase tickets HERE, and check out Pollinate’s series of hands-on urban farming classes and workshops HERE.

new michael keaton film features the evolution of macdonalds

In the spirit of the old adage: If you can’t beat ’em… learn everything about ’em that you possibly can so that you can beat ’em later. “*

The Founder, written by Robert Siegel and starring Michael Keaton was in theaters everywhere last Friday.

*’Em, of course being the agribusiness giants that got us into this whole super-sized conglomerate of a food system to begin with.

ballymoe litfest, ireland, may 19-21

Friends in the UK! LitFest – A Food and Drinks Literacy Festival is taking place this year on the weekend of 19-21st May 2017 in Ballymoe, Ireland.

The full program of events is now published so check it out and book the events that you’re interested in here…

Litfest is the only festival of its kind in Ireland and has created an important hub for food and drinks enthusiasts worldwide to meet and share ideas with each other.

Check out the list of fantastic participants who will be taking part at Litfest17. And buy tickets here!

evolution of organic premiers at ecofarm conference, jan. 27

Still from the film feature Severine and Elizabeth and Paul Kaiser of Singing Frogs farm, who are leaders in no-till farming and recently the key-note speakers at the NOFA MA Winter Conference.

This year at the EcoFarm Conference in Pacific Grove California, participants will get a chance to see a sneak preview of the documentary The Origins of Organic!

Evolution of Organic, according to its filmmakers, “brings us the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters rejected chemical industrial farming and set out to explore organic alternatives. It’s a heartfelt journey of change – from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has gone mainstream – split into an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people, and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture. As interviewee Kelly Mulville says, “Creating health in the soil creates health in the ecosystem creates health in the atmosphere – and it all cycles around.””

All that, and Severine makes a cameo!

This year’s EcoFarm Conference, which also features incredible speakers, farmer mixers, and even dancing, takes place January 25-28 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds. Online registration is now closed but onsite walk-in registration begins Wed, Jan 25 – Sat, Jan 28 starting at 7am.

call for submissions from the rural

Rural Route Film Festival has opened for submissions for the 2017 festival. The 13th annual premier will be in New York City this summer and the organization is looking for stories from the steppes, the fields, the desert and beyond.

talking about transitions

If you weren’t able to get to the “Our Land” symposium in Santa Fe and Albuquerque this November (a lot of us couldn’t), you can still catch a bit of the goodness. Agrarian Trust just uploaded some more of the video lectures from the event.

revolutions start from the bottom: film series on agricultural solutions to climate change

Unbroken Ground from Patagonia Provisions on Vimeo.

Film maker Chris Malloy asks, how can different aspects of agriculture and our food economy alter to change our relationships to our land and our oceans.

new short film by les blank

In 1967 Les Blank and Skip Gerson were hired to work in Thailand on a documentary about the B52 Bomber. There were some problems getting access to the planes. Weeks went by with Les and Skip on payroll, but with nothing to shoot. So they began traveling around the country shooting whatever they found interesting. Recently, editor Ben Abrams, and producer Harrod Blank (Les’ son) elaborated upon this gentle, short film. 

More about Thailand Moment and how to purchase it.

the seeds of vandana shiva

You’ve probably heard of Vandana Shiva–Indian author, environmental activist, and founder of Navdanya. Now comes a new documentary film about her life titled The Seeds of Vandana Shiva. Watch the trailer below:

To help fund this film, please consider a donation.

Free Movie!

 

 

“We are each of us a wise guru in charge of a mental patient.”

Two free films to stream  – Jamie Catto

 

beautiful new hopeful documentary on solutions to the current eco-crisis

Ryan Wirick, a documentary filmmaker is looking for help supporting and funding his new feature-length documentary, The Need To GROW, a “solution-packed journey into the lives of those working to fix our broken food system in the US. It focuses on SOLUTIONS (activism, permaculture, farmer’s markets and many many more), to localize food and regenerate our planet’s dying soil.”

The Kickstarter expires in two weeks and still has $20,000 left to go.

Ryan writes, “What we have made with this film is the furthest thing from a boring talking-head-style documentary of doom and gloom. It’s a story-driven, funny, dramatic, informative roller coaster with unexpected twists and turns that is ultimately hopeful and inspiring.”

Check it out!