Farmsteaders

Shaena Mallett (2018, U.S., 59 min.) + post-film discussion

“The world is full of people saying someone needs to go do that. Every now and then someone needs to stand up and go do it.” These days, it’s not hard to spot everyday heroes. From parents juggling their kids’ remote learning and their own remote working, to front-line workers in hospitals and post offices ensuring we all retain vital services, everyday heroes are legion. But even before the COVID pandemic, it was all-too-easy to ignore one particular group of unsung heroes: the people who help get food on our table. America’s family farmers have long been in crisis, from competition from factory farms, from declining commodity prices and rising debt loads, and increasingly from climate change-fueled weather disasters.

Shaena Mallett’s Farmsteaders offers an intimate portrait of Nick and Celeste Nolan, a farm family in Ohio, struggling to hang on to their small dairy farm against a never-ending series of minor setbacks. Whether it’s branching out into cheese production, joining a farmer’s market, working all-night after the kids go to sleep, or taking on new debt, they keep finding a way to move forward. Along the way, they try to provide their kids with a decent life and hope, even when they struggle to find it themselves. Filmed over five years, this frank examination of farming life is the perfect start to our year-long series of films on “how we respond” to sustainability challenges. Sometimes those responses will involve large-scale, community actions. But often times they start right at home, where at the end of the day, the only way to respond is to just keep doing the work and finding a way.

(Shown in partnership with the Penn State Student Farm Club)