12th Annual

Farm & Night Gala in Collaboration with Awareness Film Night

Wednesday April 10
EMCS Theatre, admission by donation

6:30-7:45: Theatre foyer: Vendors of all things from and for the farm and garden
7:45-9:00: Film screening and gift basket draw

The 12th Annual Farm and Film Gala co-presented with Awareness Film Night will feature vendors of farm and garden supplies, seeds, plants and locally grown/made produce and wares, community information tables and tea, coffee and goodies made by the EMCS Culinary Arts students, gift baskets and the film After Winter, Spring.

After Winter, Spring, is a film about a small rural community in the Perigord region of southwestern France, cultivated for over 6000 years, caught between their traditional ways of farming and an uncertain future. Their story is beautifully and lovingly photographed and recorded by one of their neighbors, filmmaker Judith Lit, who grew up on her family’s farm in Pennsylvania. Through the compelling stories of these hard-working farmers inextricably connected to their land and their animals the film explores the nature of small farms and the rapid changes of the last two decades that have impacted the lives of farmers whose survival is tied to the land.

“The film is never less than a pleasure to watch” Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly

“With beautiful imagery and poignant narration, the film makes it clear that the caring for field and fowl are really issues of the heart and staying connected to the land is vital to our understanding of what it means to be human” John Rife, film critic and founder of East End Market

“I love this film. ‘After Winter, Spring’ is a beautiful and intimate look into the lives of contemporary French peasants who heroically struggle to maintain the dignity of traditional, tactile ways in an age of EU homogenization” Richard McCarthy, Executive Director, Slow Food USA

Past annual Farm & Film Gala Evenings have included

  • 2018 – Evolution of Organic, Mark Kitchell’s insightful 2017 documentary retraces, through lots of archival photos and videos, the first steps of the motley crew of rebellious back to the landers, spiritual seekers and sons and daughter of farmers who rejected chemical farming and set out to explore organic alternatives.
  • 2017- SEED: The Untold Story , feature film traversing the globe showcasing passionate  farmers, scientists, seed savers, educators, lawyers and indigenous communities who are wsaving local, acclimated, not genetically modified seeds.
  • 2016 – Nourish, feature film tracing our relationship to food from a global perspective to personal action steps. 
  • 2015 – Just Eat It, feature film on food waste followed by with a panel on food waste in Sooke.
  • 2014 – Preserving Farmland, short films and speaker panel.
  • 2013 –  Outstanding in Her Field, short 1995 film on women in agriculture with a panel on contemporary issues for women in agriculture.
  • 2012 –  To Make a Farm, feature film exploring the lives of five young people entering small-scale agriculture, with a panel on new farmers in Sooke.