What’s Happening

The Justice Department has begun an investigation into increased concentration in the dairy industry.  Dairy farmers nationwide are coping with historically low milk prices after a 35% drop this year to the lowest level in three decades, while big buyers like Dean Foods and Dairy Farmers of America are reaping record-setting profits.

Read the full stories at the Wall Street Journal:

Top Antitrust Enforcer Supports More Scrutiny of Dairy Industry

Farmers Want Industry Probe

Investigations in agriculture, too, with seeds and meatpacking:

Antitrust Enforcers Begin Visiting Farm Belt

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the  shortage of workers in the dairy industry.

GOT WORKERS? DAIRY FARMS RUN LOW ON LABOR

Here’s the money quote:

“Phil Martin, an agricultural economist at the University of California, Davis, says, ‘ I would suspect a whole lot of 18-year-olds prefer to work at McDonald’s for minimum wage than milk cows.’

On Mr. Souza’s 250-acre farm, people occasionally drop by looking for work. “Once Americans get the job description, they lose interest real quick,” he says. So six out of the eight employees are Mexicans. They deliver calves, milk cows and scrape manure.”

We want to thank everyone at Independent Lens who contributed to the successful broadcast of Knee Deep.  During broadcast week, over 3/4 of a million people were able to see the film in its original form.

Independent Lens also has a website devoted to the film, where you can read about the making of the film.  The Talkback section, with comments by viewers, is especially interesting.  Check it out at Talkback

Knee Deep’s broadcast is coming soon: We’re scheduled to air as part of Independent Lens’ award-winning indie film series on November 6th at 10 PM , BUT, be sure to check your local listings, as the dates AND times are different for every station due to the proximity of election night.

Go to this link to find out when it’s playing in your area:

WHEN IS KNEE DEEP PLAYING IN MY TOWN?

And Mike Plante gave Knee Deep a nice write-up in Filmmaker Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

Knee Deep is as entertaining as any film noir, equal parts humorous and humanistic. It captures family pride and commitments as well as the crime story. Errol Morris and Herzog would be big fans.

Read the full review here: Filmmaker Magazine

We had a fabulous time at the Rooftop Film Fest. On Friday nite we went to the Rooftop Screenings of

• The Crown | by Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega
• Some Kind of Sadness | by Juan Alejandro Ramirez

at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. Both were excellent, with a terrific salsa band to boot. Then to our screening on Saturday nite, with a sell-out crowd and spectacular weather: balmy, breezy, and all of Brooklyn spread out before us. Great sound system and projection and a great crowd. Thanks to Dan, Mark, Daisy, and everyone else at Rooftop for making this a fun time.

Knee Deep just made Pop Matter’s The Top Ten Films of 2007 That You Never Heard Of. Here’s an excerpt: ” Documentaries don’t get any more compelling than this hilarious whodunit clash over a depressed dairy farm.” Read the rest at Pop Matters

We’ll be in New York this week for a screening of Knee Deep at the Rooftop Film Festival– up on top of an old can factory in Brooklyn.

Saturday, July 12, 9pm

On the roof of The Old American Can Factory,
232 3rd Street at the corner of 3rd Avenue (Gowanus, Brooklyn)

For more info, check out the schedule at Rooftop Film Fest: rooftopfilms

Melinda Hemmelgarn was at the True/False Reel Gone Roundup, and afterwards wrote this thoughtful piece in the Columbia Tribune. If you’re at all concerned about the loss of farmland and where our food comes from –and will come from–you should check out this article.

Save the homeland by protecting the farmland

Also, Melinda put us in touch with the American Farmland Trust, dedicated to protecting our nation’s strategic agricultural resources. Check out their new Farm and Food Policy Campaign at http://www.farmland.org/.

We’ve also added a link to AFT on The Moenkopi Group’s site under Resources and Links.

We just got back from the True/False Documentary Fest in Columbia, MO.  Paul Sturtz and David Wilson, co-directors of the fest, put on a great weekend.  We saw some great films, including The Mother and Man on Wire.  Best of all, though, was the fun time we had at the Reel Gone Roundup. Buses picked everyone up downtown and drove us out to an old defunct sale barn.  There was live music on the bus and the same inside the auction house.   Breakfast  from the Uprise Bakery was followed by a live auction to raise money for the fest, and then Knee Deep screened.  It was a treat  to see the bales of hay strewn around the floor in front of the screen–a perfect way to see the show!  Our thanks to everyone at the fest for their hard work.

  Wow! Knee Deep has just won the Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary at the 30th Starz Film Festival. Sheila and Michael walked the red carpet last night and received the award from fest director Brit Withey at the stunning Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Award is especially gratifying, as the jurors were some top-notch people: Brian Brooks from Indie Wire, David Wilson from the True False Fest, and AJ Schnack, director of Kurt Cobain: About a Son.

We’ve had three screenings here at Denver, all well-attended , with some good Q&A’s. This is a terrific fest, with more than 500 volunteers making sure things run right. And we got to see some very good films: Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa and Milk in the Land–a beautifully lyric doc, as much about unconventional minds as about milk.