Growing Awareness

Also viewed by this guy yesterday was the film "Growing Awareness" by Jade Ajani. This is the film you need to show to all of your friends and relatives whose eating habits might be questionable. It is a thorough examination of the evolution of Organic Farming in our region (although the concepts are universal).

By speaking to a wide variety of sources involved in Organic Farming, a story emerges of how small farmers, abandoned by banks who would no longer loan them money for operating costs (money which was always repaid), turn to a business model called Community Supported Agriculture.

From the festival program: "[In the CSA model] consumers buy shares of a local farm's harvest, receiving a weekly supply of fresh food throughout the season."

Essentially, local consumers replace the role of the bank by loaning the farmer enough money to operate the farm. Then they get their money back in the form of delicious food.

The film makes a strong case for CSA farms, citing their sustainability, the incredible quality of the organics they produce, the reduction of petroleum use due to local distribution and other factors, and, one might argue most importantly, the strengthening effect that such a model has on communities.

In regards to the quality of the produce, Ajani makes this more than evident with his beautiful cinematography. The rich, vivid colors of the vegetables speak to your stomach, while the thoughtful commentary addresses your reason. I believe this film was shot on video, but the quality is very close to celluloid.

Ajani keeps the musical scoring to a minimum, which I greatly appreciate. The moments when he does allow some music to come through are appropriate and well done.

One aspect of this film that makes it an appropriate pick for a "Documentary AND eXperimental Film Festival" is the repeated shots of large, industrial fields taken from a moving car. These shots are so hypnotic and fascinating in their stroboscopic nature that they could be extracted from the film and made into an award-winning experimental film in their own right.

Ajani's loose style of storytelling delivers many individual characters' experiences to us, while still making them adhere to a central, united narrative (the struggle and evolution of small organic farms). K Records' Calvin Johnson makes a brief cameo appearance that garners lots of laughs from the audience.

My only criticisms of this film are that it feels as though it could made a little tighter. The running time is currently 90 minutes, and that could be brought down to around 70-80 minutes without sacrificing much. Also, there is a derisive comment made about George W. Bush that seemed unnecessary. Republicans have a right to eat healthy and local too, even if some of us might disagree with...everything else they do?

This issues addressed in this film are extremely important to our society and it's hard to imagine someone else doing a better job at bringing them to the screen. See this film if you can, but more importantly, find a CSA farm in your area!