The documentary film “Dryland” will be shown at 8 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Spokane International Film Festival and its producers say screenings are planned around the Pacific Northwest.
The film follows Lind, Wash., residents Matt Miller and Josh Knodel from the time they were teenagers until they became farmers hoping to join their family operations.
The film will also be shown 3 p.m. Feb. 4 during the Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Forum and is slated for screenings at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore.; Boardman, Ore.; Coeur d’Aene, Idaho; Moscow, Idaho; Pullman, Wash., and Missoula, Mont., said Sue Arbuthnot, who produced and directed “Dryland” with Richard Wilhelm.
The filmmakers hope the movie sparks “meaningful” conversations about where food comes from, the future of family farming and sustainable agriculture, Arbuthnot said.
“Wheat farming is an essential part of Eastern Washington life, yet most residents of Spokane know little about the day-to-day existence as experienced by area wheat farmers,” said Dan Webster, who is on the film festival’s board of directors and suggested including the film. “We are hoping that people will be both educated about wheat farming, especially about the various hardships facing today’s farmers, and moved by the desire of the principal characters to continue a traditional way of life.”
It’s been particularly valuable to have the farmers at screenings to speak with the audience about hot-button topics like genetically modified crops and organic and conventional farming, Arbuthnot said. Four cast members are slated to attend the Spokane festival.
“(Older farmers) understand the costs, the ways farmers have to balance so many things in their life to get going,” she said. “There’s a lot of real resonance there.”
However, other viewers have no connection to farming, and are surprised to learn about the values depicted in the film, as opposed to stereotypes they might have picked up, Arbuthnot said.
Arbuthnot hopes to show the film outside the Pacific Northwest.
Arbuthnot and Wilhelm are in the early stages of making another documentary about natural resources and agriculture in the region.
Visit www.drylandmovie.net/dryland.php
Source: www.capitalpress.com