The North Olympic Peninsula’s 2020 Farming Film Festival will begin today with screenings of “The Biggest Little Farm” at noon in Port Townsend and at 6 p.m. in Port Hadlock.
The third annual six-film festival will show a new film the first, second and fourth Mondays of January and February.
Each screening will be followed by a discussion about the film that highlights local efforts.
Admission will be free to all films.
The Port Townsend screenings will be at the Library Learning Center in the Charles Pink House, 1256 Lawrence St.
In Port Hadlock, the films will be shown at the Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Ave.
• Jan. 6 — “The Biggest Little Farm.” The 2018 documentary follows a couple’s successes and failures as they work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.
• Jan. 13: “After Winter, Spring” is a 2012 documentary that studies French farmers as they grapple with a profound question: Will this be the last generation of family farmers in a region continuously cultivated for over 5,000 years?
• Jan. 27: “Grow Food.” This 2019 documentary follows a new farmer who knows nothing about growing food. He decides to leave his “safe” career in pool maintenance and begin to farm. There’s just one problem: he doesn’t have any land.
• Feb. 3: “The Permaculture Orchard: Beyond Organic.” This 2014 film features biologist and educator Stefan Sobkowiak sharing his experience transforming a conventional apple orchard into an abundance of biodiversity that virtually takes care of itself.
• Feb. 10: “Abundance on a Dry Land” is a 2015 documentary about rainwater harvesting techniques designed to achieve sustainable food production in dry regions of the world.
• Feb. 24: “One Man, One Cow, One Planet.” This 2007 documentary follows the late Peter Proctor, considered by many to be New Zealand’s father of biodynamics, along the back roads of rural India revealing the miracle of organics and the farmers who are reclaiming their agricultural heritage.
The festival is jointly sponsored by the Jefferson County Library, The Food Co-op, Friends of the Trees Society, Global Earth Repair Foundation, the Port Townsend Public Library, the Chimacum Corner Farmstand, Finnriver Farm, the Jefferson County Local Food Systems Council and the Friends of the Port Townsend Library.
