The Farm Film Fest is a film festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts featuring documentary films about our food — who produces it, how it reaches us, and how it affects our health, our environment, and our local and global communities.
Films
1 PM – The Economics of Happiness
Directed by Steven Gorelick, Helena Norberg-Hodge, John Page; Not Rated; 1 hour 5 minutes; Documentary; Featuring Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben and others.
“In “The Economics of Happiness,” linguist, writer, and activist Helena Norberg-Hodge explores an oft-ignored aspect of localism — its benefit to our general well being, and the social and psychological costs of the globalization-driven consumer culture.”
– Chronogram Magazine
“The Economics of Happiness” features a chorus of voices from six continents calling for systemic economic change. The documentary describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance — and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm — an economics of localization.
Mezze Catering will present a cheese tasting between screenings featuring local cheeses from Massachusetts, Vermont and New York State.
2:30 PM – Know Your Food: Shorts Program
A selection of short films about urban farming, raw milk, chocolate, bees and even soda pop!
The Mast Brothers
Directed by Michael Tyburski; 4 minutes; Documentary
A tour the Mast Brothers' bean-to-bar chocolate factory—one of just a handful in the U.S. The Brooklyn-based chocolatiers, Rick and Michael Mast, walk us through their uniquely intensive process, DIY machines, and a little of their food philosophy. Produced by Cool Hunting.
Some Like it Raw
Directed by Andrea Love; 10 minutes; Documentary
An animated documentary about raw milk, made using wire-armature dolls, water colors and fabric cut-outs.
Obsessives: Urban Farming
Produced by Chow.com; 13 minutes; Documentary
Novella Carpenter, urban farmer and author of Farm City, started small, with some plants in an empty lot next to her home in Oakland, CA. A couple of years later, she was tending to a full-blown farm, with goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and a robust garden. This video tackles questions of neighborliness (which is more offensive: police sirens or roosters crowing?), environmental poisons (raised beds are key), and the all-important slaughter question. The answer: Yes, she does.
Obsessives: Soda Pop
Produced by Chow.com; 13 minutes; Documentary
John Nese is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lovers destination. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John has made it his mission to keep small soda-makers afloat and help them find their consumers.
Don’t forget, Sunday’s the start of Daylight Savings Time!
Tickets
Films are shown at Images Cinema in Williamstown.
Single tickets are $5.
Tickets will be available at the Images Cinema box office.
Getting Here
Films and events take place in Williamstown in Berkshire County, MA. Williamstown is conveniently located about an hour’s drive of South County, the Pioneer Valley, the Hilltowns, southwestern Vermont, and the Albany metro area.