Fridays at the Farm

From a simple premise—one man's quest to get to know his food by buying a share in an organic community farm—comes this astonishingly lovely film. Photographer, filmmaker, and narrator Richard Power Hoffmann creates lush time-lapse and macro-photography sequences compiled from still images of food being cultivated at a farm near his Pennsylvania home (where he and his family pick up their food on Fridays). While Hoffmann believes that access to pure food is a basic human right, his film is neither a screed against agribusiness nor a paean to small-scale organics (he realistically portrays various problems on the farm). Rather, it's a very personal account of Hoffmann's realization that by becoming more connected to the earth and what it produces, he also grows more grounded and closer to those he loves, ultimately rediscovering his family, his community, and even faith. An extra 45 minutes of footage explores the history of Red Hill Farm and its farmers today. While Fridays at the Farm is family-friendly, Hoffmann does use the proper terminology for human genitalia within the context of plant reproduction. Highly recommended. Aud: J, H, P. (E. Gieschen)