Culture
AIFVF Opens With Regionally Focused “Farmsteaders” April 9
By: Emily Votaw
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Farmsteaders is a meditative look at contemporary rural America, told through the lens of a love story that takes place on Gallipolis’ Laurel Valley Creamery. The film, directed by Shaena Mallett, will open up the 2018 Athens International Film and Video Festival on Monday, April 12 at 7 p.m. It will be shown again on Sunday, April 15 at 1:30 p.m.
The documentary follows farmers Nick and Celeste Nolan, as they work to bring Nick’s grandfather’s dairy farm back to life. The couple’s struggle is not unusual, some 4.7 million farms in the United States have shuttered as a result of the pressures of the increasingly corporate way in which America grows its food.
Farmsteaders will be shown with The Last Honey Hunter, a documentary that chronicles the story of Maule Dhan Rai, the last person in a Nepal village of Saadi who has been visited in a dream by an angry forest spirit named Rongkemi.
Other features from Monday, April 9’s screenings include Pin Cushion (7:30 p.m.), Ruin Me (9:15 p.m.), House of Norway (9:30 p.m. and playing with Seven,), and the “Lightness and Darkness” block at 9:45 p.m.
Following the screening will be a performance by Daniel Bachman and Athens’ Dry and Dusty at Jackie O’s, starting at 9 p.m.