A Vision and a Legacy – available on DVD
and VHS
A Part of the Soil- available on DVD and VHS
A Vision and a Legacy is a sixteen minute film about the amazing farmland – recognized the most productive in the world – that creates our Great Central Valley. The farmland of California’s Central Valley produces 25% of our Nation’s fruit, nuts and vegetables. Together with California sun, melted mountain snow and prime quality soils – hard working families have not only turned the Valley into an unrivaled agricultural powerhouse; they have built a community tied to the ability to pass highly productive lands and a special way of life onto their children. Yet, at the same time, urban development risks turning our uniquely fertile soil into the most threatened production agriculture region in America.
Today, California’s population is projected to increase to almost 50 million people by 2020 and much of that growth is anticipated to occur in the Central Valley. This promises to create untold pressures on our billion-dollar agricultural economy. Central Valley residents and elected officials need to begin thinking how they can ensure an agriculturally sound future for the region. The reality is that many of the decisions that will affect the shape of agriculture as well as tomorrow’s Valley are being made today.
A Part of the Soil is an independent documentary on the tender relationship between sustainability and self-determination in the most practical frame of reference: Natural resources on private land. At the same time, it is a personal story about the expressed solidarity among a community of life-long farmers, who together, protected 40,000 acres of productive farmland from unmediated urban development in the heart of California’s Central Valley.
Infused with much of the tenacity and heart that have made this valley prosper, A Part of the Soil relishes in the personality, color and texture of people and place, while highlighting the binding relationship between the two, and inspiring the crucial role we all play in protecting one of our nation’s most valuable resources… that part of the soil along Highway 99.
Whether your association with the “Great Central Valley” is a dim knowledge of one wide, rural drive through the center of California, or you possess a very personal affection for the ground that feeds your children and the rich, wet scent of summer orchards; A Part of the Soil speaks with such spark of human emotion and grit, that its message – both practical and timely – is also, exceedingly universal.
A Part of the Soil was recognized with an honorable mention in the “Farming and Pesticides” category at the Santa Cruz EARTHVISION International Environmental Film and Video Festival in 2003.
About the Filmmaker
Brandi Graves is working on a graduate degree in Cinema at the San Francisco Art Institute. Raised in California’s Central Valley, A Part of the Soil was her first film on the subject of farmland preservation. Most recently, Brandi created a short, poetic work on the same subject matter, entitled When I Lose You.
Our new DVD includes FWG's two videos: "A Vision and a Legacy," about the amazing farmland of the Central Valley and the task of balancing growth in order to preserve our agricultural legacy, and "A Part of the Soil," the story of 8 Madera landowners who joined together to put conservation easements on their farmland.
The DVD is available for teachers, group presentations, and for your home collection. Contact us and we will send you a DVD for only $10.00 -- that includes shipping and handling (and great music!).
The DVD has original music written and performed by Brad Hart, a music major at CSU, Stanislaus
Buy Your DVD ($10.00)Video Order Form (PDF)