ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
A journey through a year in the life of three family farms cultivating cannabis, food and community in the pursuit of a regenerative future.

SYNOPSIS
Industrial agriculture is one of the greatest contributors of the harm we are doing to the earth. It’s responsible for the destruction of living soil and one of the highest causes of greenhouse gas emissions, but there is a movement towards small farms engaged in regenerative agriculture that is gaining momentum. This movement towards supporting farmer’s markets and local food systems has been growing steadily but is now faced with an existential crisis: there is an urgent need for all of us to go beyond organic and focus on healing the earth from the damage we’ve done to it, or we face irreversible consequences. The good news is the solutions are right in front of us. By supporting small, local diverse farms with environmentally thoughtful practices, we can create ripples of positive change.

TENDING THE GARDEN is a documentary about a year in the life of three regenerative family farms in the legendary cannabis-growing regions of Northern California & Southern Oregon. The film’s narrative follows the farmers all season from sprouting seeds in the spring to harvest in the fall, and provides education and inspiration around different regenerative farming practices through an immersive, observational storytelling style. In springtime, the film introduces concepts such as sequestering carbon through cover crops, the benefits of biodiversity and animal manure, and building healthy soil on the farm. During summertime, the story dives deeper into the challenges of surviving as a small farm in the legal cannabis industry and as harvest approaches in fall, we see the farmers struggling to deal with drought and finally celebrating the return of the rain. Ultimately the joy of all three farms bringing in the harvest delivers a satisfying payoff to the season-long story arc as all of their hard work comes to fruition.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Claire Weissbluth
PRODUCER Claire Weissbluth, Jesse Dodd, Ryan Troy

WEBSITE tendingthegardenfilm.com