FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 8, 2015
FARM AID CONTACT:
Brittany Vanderpool
202-248-5487
bvanderpool@vancomm.com
Farm Aid Partners With McCormick Place and Savor…Chicago to Present Film2FarmAid Film Festival
Three-Night Film Festival Showcases Feature and Short Films About Food and Agriculture
CHICAGO — Farm Aid announced today that it will partner with McCormick Place and Savor…Chicago to present a three-night film festival in the days leading up to Farm Aid 30 in Chicago. The festival will run Tuesday, Sept. 15, through Thursday, Sept. 17, and will showcase 15 feature and short films about food and agriculture at McCormick Place. Located along Chicago’s lakefront, McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America. It also features a rooftop farm that is a partnership between Savor…Chicago and the Chicago Botanic Garden. The farm was created to promote local sustainable agriculture and to train city residents for careers in urban agriculture.
A brief Q&A session comprising filmmakers, local farmers and food activists will follow the film screenings on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, a panel discussion will feature local family farmers; Carolyn Mugar, Farm Aid’s executive director; and Sarah Vogel, lead counsel in Coleman v. Block, a national class action that stopped farm foreclosures and is featured in the closing scene of the film “Country.” Also each evening, a post-screening reception will feature local foods at the rooftop farm at McCormick Place.
WHAT: Film2FarmAid Film Festival
Films scheduled for screening include: “Country,” directed by Richard Pearce and written and produced by William Witliff; “Dryland,” by Sue Arbuthnot and Richard Wilhelm; “Brookford Almanac,” by Cozette Russell; “The Last Barn Dance,” by Ted Richardson and Jason Arthurs; “Food Patriots,” by Jeff Spitz; “Food Forward: Urban Farming,” by Greg Roden; “Century Farm,” by Melissa Gregory Rue; “Isabelle’s Garden,” by Jeffrey Palmer; “A Chicago Ranch,” by Donald Jay O’Brien; “Harmony Gardens,” by Solomon Horner; “A Greene Generation,” by Tim Alden Grant; “Food Hero: Kristin Carbone,” by Shalini Kantayya and Real Food Media Project; “Bread,” by Dustin Hughes; “The Berry Picker,” by Allison Milligan; and “Our Work is Life,” by Luke McKinley.
WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 15, through Thursday, September 17
Films begin at 7 p.m., followed by brief Q&A session with filmmakers, farmers and food systems activists. A reception will follow on McCormick Place’s rooftop farm, featuring refreshments from local sources.
WHERE: McCormick Place, Room West 192
2301 S Martin Luther King Dr.
Chicago, IL 60616
Farm Aid 30, which will take place on Saturday, Sept. 19, at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews — with Tim Reynolds — as well as Imagine Dragons, Jack Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Mavis Staples, Old Crow Medicine Show, Jamey Johnson, Holly Williams, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Insects vs Robots, Ian Mellencamp, and Blackwood Quartet.
For event updates, follow Farm Aid on Twitter (@farmaid) and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/farmaid), and visit www.farmaid.org/concert.
Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. For 30 years, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised $48 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.
–30–
**Editors and Producers Note: Advance credentials are required for all media to attend Farm Aid 30. Please visit farmaid.org/media by Thursday, Sept. 10, to apply. Media can download official Farm Aid photos and videos at farmaid.org/media.**
