FilmFest Joins Museum to Examine “Living Off the Land”
Two Brown Bag Screenings Celebrate “Farm to Table” Movement
Ozark Foothills FilmFest will present back to back “Brown Bag” screenings at Old Independence Regional Museum at noon on Wednesday, March 25, and Thursday, March 26. The free screenings examine “living off the land,” the Museum’s current programming focus, from a 21st century perspective. Screening attendees may bring a brown bag lunch. Each program will last approximately an hour including discussion.
On Wednesday, March 25, the festival will screen Fridays at the Farm. Feeling
disconnected from their food, a photographer/filmmaker and his family decide to join a community-supported organic farm in rural Pennsylvania. Filmmaker Richard Hoffman moves from passive observer to active participant as he photographs the natural processes of food cultivation. Featuring lush time-lapse and macro photography sequences compiled from nearly 20,000 still images, this personal essay is a meditation on the beauty and bounty of nature experienced every day on the farm. It has played at Mountainfilm in Telluride Colorado; the Newport International Film Festival, the Seattle Film Festival, the Green Film Festival in Seoul, and the Sapporo Shortsfest in Japan, and the Slow Food International Film Festival in Bologna, Italy. Film critic Geoffrey Kleinman called the film, “An extremely sweet look at one family’s experience with community supported agriculture . . . a beautiful and personal film that captures a joy and connection with food that is really special.”
On Thursday, March 26, the festival will screen Katherine Lukaszewicz’s Organic Frederick: A Portrait of a Growing Community. The film examines how organic foods are entering the American mainstream through a look at the people and businesses involved with the organic industry in Frederick County, Maryland. Organic Frederick received the prestigious AEGIS Video and Film Award. Desha organic farmer Dan Guyette will attend the screening and discuss opportunities for expanding the availability of organic produce locally.
The 8th annual Ozark Foothills FilmFest is presented by founding sponsor First Community Bank of Batesville. Funding and in-kind support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arkansas Arts Council, FutureFuel Chemical Company, FNBC, Liberty Bank, First Southern Bank, Lyon College, the City of Batesville, Pat and Mary Lea, Keith Sturch Photography, the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, Old Independence Regional Museum, the Batesville Area Arts Council, Comfort Suites Hotel, Esta’s White River Retreat, MorningSide Coffeehouse, the Category One Entertainment Group, George’s Liquor, Tommy’s Famous Pizza, Serenity Farm Bread, Martin Greer’s Candies, Pepsi Americas, Daylight Donuts, Josie’s Steakhouse, PD Printing, WRD Entertainment, KFFB 106.1 FM, Main Street Batesville, the Ozark Gateway Tourist Council, Midwest Lime, LaCroix Optical, White River Distributors, Kent’s Firestone, Rick Reed Construction, and Mobley Architecture and Design.
Ozark Foothills FilmFest, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization founded in 2001 and headquartered in Locust Grove, AR. Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. The complete festival line-up and other relevant information are available at www.ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org or by calling 870-251-1189.
