ITP Grant Partner and film-maker Casey Beck recently shared her journey in the making of her documentary film, The Organic Life:

How was your 1st ITP ‘pause’ grant instrumental in completing your documentary film, The Organic Life, and what transpired during your second "Seeding Possibilities" grant?  
The Pause helped me and the The Organic Life (TOL) team formulate and decide upon the story.  When I started this project, the idea was just to film my boyfriend Austin, an organic farmer, for a year; and then, the story went through a couple of iterations. » Read More

Saturday November 9th at 4:45 p.m. the Santa Cruz Film Festival will have a screening of Casey Beck's documentary film, The Organic Life.  A year in the life of a hopeful organic farmer and his skeptical partner reveals that a changing climate, financial insecurity, demanding physical labor, and corporate agriculture threaten the sustainability of one of the world's most traditional livelihoods in modern-day America.

Now, with the curricula nearly finished, and a stunning movie poster and beautiful press kit ready to be sent out to the film festival masses along with a shiny, new DVD screener, I am reminded by the powerful words of Alice Walker of the necessity for a third pause: to take that moment, much deserved, at the end of something, whatever that may be (in this case, the process of making a movie), and to just be, to sit with all that you have accomplished before experiencing all that is to come. It is important to realize that taking this moment is as important, if not more so, than all that is to come. It is important to understand on a deep level that this stillness is not static but rather an integral part of the dynamic process of self-realization.

As I dream of all of the places the film will ultimately go -- first to festivals, then to community screenings, schools, homes, family farms, and finally to the Internet -- it's hard not to feel a pressing rush to get the film out there; to submit, submit, submit and to do my very best as the director to see the film reach the largest audience possible. Every week now I receive an email from a stranger from Canada, or New York or Los Angeles asking when and where they can see the film. And every week I have to take a deep breath before responding that soon it will be available...but not quite yet. I think a major part of this pause is allowing myself to experience those feelings without feeling rushed or hurried, to not shy away from the possibilities that will come but to not reach out for them just yet. Because the film deserves a moment of stillness, and I've come to realize that I do, too.

To take this pause is to allow all the energy behind the film, all of the energy and resources that were put into it over the past two years and all of the energy compelling the film forward to percolate. This simmering will allow the film and the filmmaker both a rest and also a moment of mental clarity before the next step. Because to take this pause is to understand that there really is no end but rather just a series of continuing beginnings.

The process of bringing The Organic Life to light has been long, arduous and sometimes monotonous, but in that sense, it’s not unlike the process of organic farming, which it seeks to reveal. Our farmers start out with a seed – or, in my case, a simple idea – which they plant and cultivate, caring for it with water, compost and sun. However, despite their best efforts to nurture this plant, its success is ultimately dependent on so many factors, natural elements, over which they have no control.

 

The artistry and magic of this natural process echo during the filmmaking process. A fellow filmmaker put it wisely, “You set out to make one film, and the film that needs to get made, gets made.”

 

With every planting, the farmer ultimately loses potential plants (and revenue) to poor germination, pests, too much rain, too little rain, and days that are too hot or too cold. When you consider, even for a moment, the multitude of micro elemental transactions that must take place for you to purchase that juicy carrot at the farmers market, you begin to realize it’s a miracle that its first tiny sprout ever broke through the rough earth at all. Even then, you have no idea what its yield will be.

 

Farmers might set out to grow a certain type of produce for a certain reason, but the harvest that needs to happen – for them to learn certain life lessons or to grow and ultimately to blossom in their chosen career – happens.

 

Similarly, if you would have asked me two and a half years ago what The Organic Life was about, my description would certainly not match the powerfully personal, intimate chronicle that I’ve nearly completed today. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I never thought I’d make a film with myself as a main character. For a long time, I never even thought I’d make a film about Austin. Yet that’s the film that emerged.

 

Now, I’m a mere weeks from having the film be 100% completed and festival ready, replete with downloadable mini-books for both educators and also adult viewers, and I realize the immensity of this undertaking. However, with a little luck (the early dry spell, a few warm nights), this film could truly influence people’s eating and produce buying habits.

 

I’ve been inspired by Austin’s continuous tenacity to pursue his passion and, if I must admit it, by my own courage to have made a film that goes against what most experts and critics want to see in the food documentary genre (such as films that align with the structure and tone of Food, Inc., The Future of Food, and Forks Over Knives).

 

I know that change happens only from human-to-human contact, and as I approach the precipice of sharing The Organic Life with the world, it is my sincere hope that by getting to know Austin and me and understanding our decision to partake in a more localized, seasonal, and just food system, viewers will feel empowered to change and improve their own lives and the planet as we revolutionize the American food system (one carrot at a time).

Documentary Film: "The Organic Life" - Casey Beck, Filmmaker - 
Casey "paused" and further edited the storyline of a documentary film chronicling a year in the life of an organic farmer and the financial insecurity, physical hardship, and rise of corporate agriculture that threaten the sustainability of organic farming. 

Now, with her "Seeding Possibilities" grant, she is ready to create and publicize a downloadable educational curriculum both for children and adults to accompany the film.  Her approach is two-pronged.  She will develop two, 10-page mini books to be distributed via free downloadable PDFs alongside the film:  one for adults and one for education of 7^th - 9th grade students.  The adult screening guide will include post-screening discussion items and questions. The children's guides will be aligned with California state curriculum standards, and will give teachers the tools to incorporate a comprehensive look at local, organic farming into the larger curriculum of many different subjects.

It was such a treat and we are so appreciative that Lisa took us on a private guided tour. (We are also quite jealous of any job that counts an afternoon hike as "work"!)




















Lisa Micheli and Casey Beck