Tractor: The Movie

L'acte de la beauté

November 2021 •French

Country Auction

January 1964 •English

Household effects and farm implements under the hammer. Here is the auctioneer's cajoling patter, the jostling crowd, pungent observations from one or two old-timers and, over all, the kindly curiosity of folks who gather to see the end of a neighbour's life on the farm.

Werner We Love You

October 2017 •German

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

Farmsteaders

April 2018 •English

Clear-eyed and intimate, Farmsteaders follows Nick Nolan and his young family on a journey to resurrect his late grandfather’s dairy farm as agriculture moves toward large-scale farming. A study of place and persistence, Farmsteaders points an honest and tender lens at everyday life in rural America, offering an unexpected voice for a forsaken people: those who grow the food that sustains us.

Toxification

January 2020 •Panjabi

India's prosperous Green Revolution was led by Punjab, a state in northern India famous for its lush rice fields and wet, fertile soil. But as farmers are conned into buying more and more pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers that they don't need, which demand often ten times more water, the water table is sinking at an alarming rate. Punjab's water has been poisoned by the chemicals, and the farmers poison their bodies with opium, helping them to work longer and harder. Loans from a middleman are taken out, with extortionate interest rates that are impossible to pay back. As a result, hundreds of Punjabi families are left without a father, husband or son as more and more farmers cave in under the pressure and drink their own chemicals to end their lives.

A Life on the Farm

May 2023 •English

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

Cyrille

February 2020 •French

Cyrille, a young gay farmer from Auvergne, has only one friend, a homosexual like him. One day, he goes on vacation to a beach in Charente Maritime. He cannot swim and sees the sea for the first time. It was there that he met the director Rodolphe Marconi who decided to devote this sensitive and gentle portrait to him, plunging us into an agricultural world in crisis and into a life often lonely and made up of hard work rarely pays off.

The Children From the Napf

November 2011 •German

In the tradition of ETRE ET AVOIR and some of THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL Fifty children of mountain farmers, six miles of walking to school, a childhood in the heart of Switzerland.

z'Bärg

January 2016 •German

Portrait of a couple who decide to work and live for the summer time on a lonely alp.

Meeting Place Organic Film

April 2016 •English

Local, organic, and sustainable are words we associate with food production today, but 40 years ago, when Fran and Tony McQuail started farming in Southwestern Ontario, they were barely spoken. Since 1973, the McQuails have been helping to build the organic farming community and support the next generation of organic farmers. This is a documentary about the McQuails that explores the very real ways their farm has contributed to the long term ecological viability of agriculture in Ontario. It is a call to action for all those who believe there is a better way to take care of our planet and feed the world.

Lida

March 2020 •English

"LIDA" takes place on the day of Lida's 70th birthday. This already special day is made more unusual by the recent arrival of her grandson, Lev, who had immigrated to the United States with his family in 2001. Returning to Ukraine for the first time as an adult, Lev documents his grandmother as she tends to the small homestead and prepares for the birthday celebration in the rural village in Ukraine. By capturing moments of arduous labor, as well as through personal conversation, Lev inquires into his grandmothers relationship to her home, land - and their family.

An Italian Family: Life on a Farm

January 1975 •English

This film presents geographic and cultural aspects of Italy with an account of one family living on a small farm, who, unlike many Italians seeking modernization, avoid mechanization in preference for a simple way of life.

Systrarna i Gallejaur

January 1990 •Swedish

Documentary about three sisters in the small village Gallejaur. They live on a farm which they run in the same way it was run in the 19th century.

Der Stand der Bauern

January 1995 •German

Documentary portrait of 5 farming families and their struggles

Far from the Madding Crowd

June 1967 •English

Bathsheba Everdine, a willful, flirtatious, young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and becomes romantically involved with three widely divergent men.

Scotch Tension

January 2020 •English

A sweeping small town romance exploring the grit of craft, the heart of family, and the pains of love, told over the span of several years.

Summertime Blues

August 2009 •German

The life of 15 year old Alex is turned upside down, when his parents are divorced and find new partners right away. After a fight at school, the mother takes him over to England, where Alex chaotic life continues.

Alkali, Iowa

January 1995 •English

On his family's farm in rural Iowa, young Jack Gudmanson is wrestling with his sexual identity, not an easy thing to do in the macho world of the Midwest. But things become clearer for him when he discovers via a rusty old lunch box filled with gay magazines that his father, killed in Vietnam, led a double life down on the farm. But as liberating as the discovery is for Jack, it is painful for his grandfather and mother, who have tried for years to keep it a family secret. Now Jack must decide whether to share this new information with his younger sister or allow it to remain buried a while longer.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

October 2009 •English

The Fantastic Mr. Fox, bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family.

Beyond the Prairie, Part 2: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Continues

March 2002 •English

Laura, her husband Almanzo and their daughter Rose leave South Dakota and head for Missouri in search of a better, more financially stable life. It's a daunting journey, but they're sustained by their resolve. However, they're faced with an even greater challenge after their arrival: an ailing and bedridden Almanzo is unable to tend their new land. With winter fast on its way, Laura attempts to clear the land herself and plant the acres of apple trees that they hope will ensure their future.