1. The Way of the Shaman Drum (鼓韵关东)
During the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 20th century, ethnic Manchu people were persecuted and forced to give up such cultural traditions as the shaman dance . However, on Changbai Mountain in Northeast China, a farmer named Guan Yunde decided to start designing and building traditional Manchu shaman drums. At age 70, he is one of a minority of ethnic Manchu people in China's Jilin province, and one of the few people keeping the Manchu shamanic tradition alive.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
2. A Time To Rise
On April 6, 1980, the Canadian Farmworkers Union came into existence. This film documents the conditions among Chinese and East Indian immigrant workers in British Columbia that provoked the formation of the union, and the response of growers and labor contractors to the threat of unionization. Made over a period of two years, the film is eloquent testimony to the progress of the workers’ movement from the first stirrings of militancy to the energetic canvassing of union members.
3. Perfect Compost: a Master Class with Peter Proctor
Peter Proctor is New Zealand's father of biodynamic agriculture. Peter has been gardening and making compost for over 65 years. "Biodymanics makes organics work." Compost is the fundamental element in all gardening & farming. This master class takes you through the biodynamic compost making process from gathering and assembling your materials to creating the perfect compost heap. Rudolf Steiner believed biodynamic compoast was the foundation of humanity and the vital link between the cosmos and the earth. In Perfect Compost, Peter Proctor walks you through every step to building perfect compost.
4. Love, Women & Flowers (Amor, mujeres y flores)
Women workers stand up to the toxic flower industry in Colombia.
5. Henry Browne, Farmer
Henry Browne, an African American farmer, and his family are profiled in this film. The important job of a farmer during times of war is highlighted, specifically his efforts growing peanuts and cotton. This role is made even more poingnant when they visit the eldest son who is a cadet in the 99th Pursuit Squadron.
It has an average vote of 4.8 on TMDB.
6. The Songs of Rice (เพลงของข้าว)
In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.
It has an average vote of 5.25 on TMDB.
7. Food and Country
America’s policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl reaches out across political and social divides to uncover the country’s broken food system and the innovators risking it all to transform it.
8. Farm'ly Life
A Documentary/Mockumentary that follows the story of Charlie who is passionate for farming.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
9. Greening the Desert
Permaculture expert Geoff Lawton describes how he and a team of volunteers grew an oasis in arid, salty lowland, despite extremely high temperatures and minimal irrigation. The site is the lowest dryland expanse on Earth: a plain in Jordan, two kilometres northeast of the Dead Sea, and 400 metres below sea level.
10. Half-Life in Fukushima (Demi-vie à Fukushima)
In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a Japanese farmer ekes out a solitary existence within the radiation red zone.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
11. King Corn
King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.
It has an average vote of 6.25 on TMDB.
12. Farmers For America
The average age of the U.S. farmer has reached 60. Half of America's farmland will change ownership in the next 15 years. Our nation faces a little-known agricultural crisis on an unprecedented scale. Against all odds, this is the story of an eclectic mix of young people- military veterans, bright-eyed idealists, and multi-generational farmers who are accepting the virtuous challenge of feeding us all. The documentary is narrated by Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs, Returning the Favor and stars farmers from every region of the United States including national agricultural leaders like Joel Salatin, Eliot Coleman, Blake Hurst and Lindsey Lusher-Shute.
13. American Interior
Two men. Two quests. Two centuries apart. Four ways to experience the search for a lost tribe. Film. Book. Album. App.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
14. Higher Grounds
Panama is reimagining coffee, and driving new standards for both quality and economics. Explores variety, farming practice, and processing innovation—notions traditionally associated only with winemaking. Through collaborative competition, Panamanian growers are banding together to raise the bar for coffee worldwide. Featuring interviews with award-winning coffee producers in Panama and global coffee celebrities, as well as stunning footage of Panama’s breathtaking highlands, Higher Grounds concludes with a hard look at the sustainability of specialty coffee, the implications for developing-region producers, and how Panama offers a model for the rest of the world.
15. The Peasant's War (Bauernkrieg)
The second part of a trilogy on the subject of farming in which an attempt is made to look at the existence of farmers at the end of the 20th century.
16. La Ferme des Bertrand (La Ferme des Bertrand)
1972 in Haute-Savoie : the Bertrand's farm, with a hundred dairy cows owned by three bachelor brothers, is filmed for the first time. In 1997, they were the subject of Gilles Perret's first movie, as they let their farm to their nephew Patrick and his wife Hélène. Nowadays, 25 years later, Gilles Perret take another look at this farm, managed by Hélène who will step down. Through their words, an intimate, social and economic history of the rural world.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
17. Reserve 107
Indigenous rights and title to the land remains a taboo topic for many across Canada, but in the small town of Laird, Saskatchewan, an old injustice is providing new opportunities for dialogue, friendship and a fierce determination to right the wrongs of the past.
18. Kiss the Ground
Sheds light on an alternative approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.
It has an average vote of 7.985 on TMDB.
19. An Eastern Market
Documentary detailing a farmer’s visit to the market in Rawalpindi.
20. Six Inches of Soil
The inspiring story of British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, benefit our health and provide for local communities.