Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Film screening offers glimpse into a family farm

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October 13, 2011

AMES, Iowa -- Filmmaker John Helde will offer a preview screening of his new documentary film on Thursday, October 27 on the Iowa State University campus. “Field Work: A Family Farm” is a work-in-progress that follows Judy and Charlie Swanson and their children as they pursue their dream, and face the challenges, of modern family farming.

The screening will take place in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union at 7:00 p.m. A discussion with Helde and participants of the project, including Judy and Charlie Swanson and Julie and Scott Wilber of Wilber’s Northside Market in Boone, will follow the 96-minute film.
  
The documentary follows the Swanson family through several seasons. Helde calls it a “character-driven” film that raises many of the current issues in family farming, such as rising land prices, changing technologies, and the barriers to entry for the younger generation. It offers a modern portrait of the iconic family farm and America’s shifting agricultural landscape.

The film features music by the Iowa-based duo Truckstop Souvenir. It is supported by Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture. The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB) cosponsor the screening.

For more info contact:

Laura Miller, Leopold Center communications, (515) 294-5272, lwmiller@iastate.edu

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