This film-in-the-making, Gleason Ranch: Risking Everything, tells the story of two sisters in Bodega, California struggling to keep their 150 year-old, fifth-generation family ranch alive after the sudden death of their parents. As a Berkeley filmmaker, I have been documenting the unfolding story of Gleason Ranch now for over four years.
My inspiration for this project came from my desire to understand more about my family's history. My mom, grandmother, and great-grandparents grew up on a 3rd-generation family farm in Badger, Iowa. When I first began filming, I wanted to capture the overall experience of working on a family farm, as I felt like this was an experience that was vanishing and therefore a stor that needs to be captured. As time has passed, the film has evolved; it's become a much larger, much more personal story of life, loss, and the precious connection we hold with our natural environment.
As author Michael Pollan recently said, "This film goes beyond the romance of farming... [it's] a hard look at the struggles."
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Gleason Ranch has been giving back to its community for five generations. Our food security as a society depends on families just like them. In making this film, we hope to help support family farmers and their communities everywhere.
As this film supports sustainability and community, we’ve decided to support our small local businesses in the very way that we fundraise. Here are a few of the amazing local businesses that are supporting us by offering generous awards to the highest contributors to our Indiegogo fundraising efforts each day:
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The Cheese Board Collective / Gather / Bi Rite / Pegasus Books / Cafe Gratitude / Spoon / Bay Area Bikes / and many more!
What you can win today?: http://gleasonranchfilm.com/donor-of-the-day/
These last four years documenting life on Gleason Ranch have truly been a tremendous journey. It’s been an intense and fulfilling experience--one that has moved me dearly--and I’d love to be able to share it with you.
To learn how to support our film, please check out our new video and our trailer here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gleason-ranch-risking-everything/
Thank you so much.
Morgan Schmidt Feng
Edited by Nicholas Carter
For more information see http://gleasonranchfilm.com/
