Tribeca: “Harvest” Reaps and Sows Love
In 2014, novelist Natalie Baszile wrote Queen Sugar. The book tells the story of a young widow from Los Angeles who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm from her father and moves to rural Louisiana. The novel caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay, who brought the book to life as a series on the Oprah Winfrey Network. A little over a decade later, Baszile is making her directorial debut with her daughter and creative partner, Hyacinth Parker. The two co-directed the Tribeca world-premiering documentary, Harvest, a story that bears some resemblance to the fictional one Baszile told in 2014.
Courtesy of Tribeca
In rural Louisiana live the Nelson brothers. They’re fourth-generation farmers who have been working together in business for seven years. Despite the old adage about never getting into business with family members, Courtney, Shun, Bo, and Adrain love that they get to spend every day together in the field. The year prior to the one filmed for the documentary was the brothers’ most difficult harvest of their lives, and with changing climates, rising costs, and familial tensions, this year could be worse.
The brothers take immense pride in their farm. They own a small portion of their acreage outright and rent the rest from thirty-two separate owners. They’re barely breaking even, and spend hours fixing old equipment because they can’t afford to buy more updated machinery. On the one hand, there’s a sense of accomplishment in repairing their own equipment, but there’s also a desire to not have to fight so much to merely exist. Their families understand that while they’re going to be gone from sunup to sundown, these men will always show up for big events.
Of course, not everything runs smoothly between the brothers. Their playful teasing easily slips into real anger as the harvest season continues and things become more stressful. Climate change brings more rain than there used to be, and the brothers have to pivot from their original crop plan. They also agreed to take on 1,000 more acres of land that’s 1.5 hours away by car, but four hours away by tractor. It’s easy to see how stress could build over the course of a planting and harvest season.
Courtesy of Tribeca
Americans are growing increasingly disconnected from their food and the people who produce it. Harvest introduces viewers to the individuals who are putting in the work and shows how hard it is for them to break even, let alone thrive. We, the consumers, should know and care about the lives of the American farmers. The Nelson brothers believe in their business and each other. They have a drive that pushes them, even when nature seems to be against them. It’s about legacy as much as it is about the crop they yield.
“I want this to last,” one of the brothers says about their fraternal and business relationships. Harvest is about a family that has endured a profound loss and chooses to let it bring them closer to one another. We see the sun rise and fall on this family, always knowing there’s another day ahead. No matter what happened throughout the course of the day, they will find a way to continue on. Harvest is perseverance, rebirth, and for the dreamers.
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