HomeGrown

(USA, 2008, 52 mins, DigiBeta)

Canadian Premiere

PROD/ED: Robert McFalls
CAM: Arthur Yee
MUS: Jay Ungar, Molly Mason

The Dervaes family lives a few hundred feet away from a major freeway in downtown Pasadena. But their urban homestead (located on a 1/5 of an acre) could very well be from an entirely different age. As Anaïs Dervaes says, "Sometimes, I feel like I was born in the wrong century." The family came to urban homesteading somewhat by accident, when patriarch Jules Dervaes turned his front lawn into a sea of wildflowers and discovered that restaurants would pay for edible blossoms. But selling the flowers to buy groceries seemed counterproductive, and soon the family expanded into growing their own food. As they honed their intensive cultivation practices, their output increased every year, growing from 2500 to 3000 to more than 6000 pounds of produce annually.

As much a portrait of an extraordinary family as an experiment in sustainable living, the Dervaes' struggle to live lightly on the land is a prescient reminder that the future has a great deal to learn from the past. As they battle drought, frost and the creeping incursion of commercialism (selling ads on their website prompts an ideological battle), the family's efforts to become energy independent (using solar ovens, hand-cranked kitchen gadgets and making their own biodiesel) begins to attract global attention. Possessed of a warm, humble spirit, HomeGrown is a gentle indication that we are only a few generations removed from the family farm, and that sometimes, the very best thing to do is go home again.

HomeGrown screenings will be followed by a discussion on urban gardening with special guests.

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