Event

INDIE FILM: Occupy the Farm

Celebrate Earth Day with OCCUPY THE FARM! Proceeds benefit Avalon Organic Gardens Internship programs.

This 2014 documentary, OCCUPY THE FARM, tells the story of 200 urban farmers who walked onto a publicly owned research farm on Earth Day 2012 and planted it with two acres of crops in order to save the land from becoming a real-estate development.

The film captures an intense conflict over one piece of land. Compelling characters on both sides of the battle create a remarkable narrative in which community members employ an ingenious strategy to confront a powerful institution in the effort to preserve public land for urban farming.

From preparing the soil to police raids, from lawsuits to overflowing harvests, OCCUPY THE FARM reveals a determined community responding with a direct action to address a major social need: healthy food and access to public land.

"Riveting from the start", says the Village Voice's film critic Ernest Handy about OCCUPY THE FARM. "It illustrates the staggering extent to which corporate interests dictate policy and shape scientific research."

"Sweeps up the viewer in a fast-paced, character-driven narrative," says Sarah Burke in her film review of OCCUPY THE FARM in East Bay Express.

"Empowering food for thought," says Los Angeles Times film critic Michael Rechtsaffen.

"From the moment I arrived on the Gill Tract I knew that this was an important story and that the farmer's strategy was new, unique and hopeful. I am fortunate that these historic events played out in front of our cameras over the weeks and months that we followed them. It was like catching lightening in a bottle."
Todd Darling, Director

90 min.
Recommended ages 12 & up