The sprawling, rural farmlands of Lind, Washington found themselves projected on the quaint screen of the Bijou Metro Theater as a part of the Eugene International Film Festival Saturday evening. Filmed over a timespan of a decade, Dryland, directed by Sue Arbuthnot and Richard Wilhelm, focuses on the lives of two families who have been dryland farming wheat for multiple generations.
Dryland farming is a technique in which farmers grow crops in areas with minimal rain and moisture. The precision required for this farming technique is demanding and difficult. Early in the film, the father details his logbook of every rainfall since the seventies. In order to grow their crops, they must understand the weather and climate as precisely as possible.
The film serves not as a rallying cry for combatting climate change, but also provides an important look at how climate change is already beginning to affect the everyday citizen. This perspective allows a friendly glimpse into the community that the majority of people have not experienced firsthand, seeing as only one percent of the American population are farmers.
The movie is as much about family as it is about the future of farming and how family farming may be the most viable method of farming successfully, should the opportunity remain available in the future.
“I don’t know what it’s going to be like down the road,” Josh Knodel says in the film. “You know, nobody knows that, but, I hope that down the road, when my turn comes, that the opportunity is still there.”
Providing respite from the gloomy future of farming is the annual Lind Combine Demolition Derby. This competition provides the town with its greatest source of entertainment, and the protagonists’ greatest source of pride. By bashing their tricked out tractors hell-bent on friendly destruction, Matt Miller and Josh Knodel learn that hard work yields great rewards­­­­ — a necessary trait for farming.
As Josh goes away to college at Washington State University and later lands a job with John Deere, he faces an uncertain future. He knows he wants to continue farming in the tradition of his family, but admits that it may simply not be an option and an alternative career may be the only option.
This film festival also featured three short films including Jasmine, directed by Steven J. Warren, about a man attempting to brighten a sick patient’s stay in the hospital with simple acts of kindness. The eight-minute Sam and Gus, directed by Josh David Gordon, tells the story of two brothers and how one learns to believe in life again following a tragic childhood event. Dryland was the third film, and Coffee and a Bagel closed the showing. This film follows a recently widowed elderly man as he garners unexpected results from online dating, directed by Gavin Brown.