THE SEER to have Int'l Premiere @ HOTDOCS in Toronto

We are THRILLED to be premiering internationally at HOTDOCS, North America's largest documentary festival.  HOTDOCS is of course in Toronto, Canada.  Tickets are on sale now.  We especially hope we are able to see Canadian Wesley Bates, who provided the signature wood engravings that are used in our film.  Angie Driscoll described our film this way:

“Filmed over four seasons, The Seer surveys the changing landscapes and shifting values of rural America. Presented from the point of view of poet and essayist Wendell Berry, this cinematic documentary uses Berry’s prolific writing and lifelong relationship to his land and community in Kentucky as the basis for a larger discussion about the ideological struggle between the agrarian virtues of simplicity and rootedness and a capital-intensive model of industrialized agriculture. How has farming gone from art to industry in a single generation? More than a plea to return to “simpler” times and sustainable practices, Berry puts the “culture” back into agriculture. He argues that we can think of farming as an art form, a creative endeavour like writing a novel, so that when it’s threatened with loss we’re not just losing a thing, we’re also losing our appreciation of and connection to it, and ultimately, the connection to ourselves

BONUS: BARBARIAN PRESS

THE SEER will preceded by the world-premiere of Sarah Race's short film BARBARIAN PRESS. We really owe the HOTDOCS programmers a debt of gratitude for such an appropriate coupling.  Here's their summary:  

“In the age of mechanical reproduction, this intimate, visually beautiful film celebrates handmade pursuits. Jan and Crispin Elsted have been making fine art books by letterpress for over 30 years. Partners in life and work, the couple are achingly aware they may be the last of a kind.