Independent Lens
Camp Widow
At Camp Widow, every attendee, volunteer, speaker, and staff member has lost their partner; together they find camaraderie and unexpected joy.
Greener Pastures
Greener Pastures provides an intimate look at American farming through the stories of farmers confronting climate change, industrialization, and mental health crises.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- March 25, 2024
- Length
- 90 minutes
Producer/Director
Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian
Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian is an award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker exploring themes at the intersection of time, health, and science. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and NBC. In 2023, he was named a PBS Wyncote Fellow and is a recipient of the Kodak Motion Picture Film Bronze Award for Excellence in Filmmaking.
Producer
Ian Robertson Kibbe
Ian Robertson Kibbe is a Southern raised, Midwest based, mixed-race, white-presenting, Chicago filmmaker with a love of rural stories. He produced the award-winning Kartemquin Film's Raising Bertie. Presently, he's co-chair of the DPA's Equity & Inclusion Committee and an alum of IFP Labs, Good Pitch, and Doc Society Climate Story Fund.
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The Film
American farmers have faced historic hardships from the Great Depression to the 1980s farming crisis. Now, a combination of climate change and the pandemic has increased economic uncertainty and isolation, resulting in a grave mental health crisis. This essential industry is at a crossroads, endangering the lives and livelihoods of American farmers and the nation’s food supply.
Greener Pastures follows a group of Midwestern farmers on four multigenerational family farms over several years. Jeff Ditzenberger is a corn and soybean farmer who tried to end his own life years ago. Today, he runs a nonprofit, talking to farmers across the Midwest about mental health and suicide prevention. Jay Simeral is a sixth-generation farmer. With his wife Melissa, the family navigates financial struggles and successes, including competition from larger farms, bankruptcy, and the difficult decision to allow fracking on their land. Chris Petersen is a livestock farmer lobbying tirelessly for farmers’ rights. His daughter Becky Higgins runs a small sustainable farm with her husband. She was elected District Soil and Water Commissioner in the fall of 2020, continuing her father’s political legacy. Juliette Albrecht is a dairy farmer in Minnesota. Once a dairy show competitor, she now struggles with alcoholism but is getting better through rehab. Faced with increasing rent and covid-based industry disruptions, she is forced to move to another farm.
The film examines the policies, politics, and obstacles farmers endure. It is a story of perseverance and survival within the farming industry in the heartland of the United States.
