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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Award-winning feature documentary AFTER WINTER, SPRING has been selected for a special screening at the Salone Del Gusto and Terra Madre event held this year from October 23-27 in Turin, Italy. Organized by Slow Food, the region of Piedmont and the city of Turin in collaboration with the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, the symposium is the world’s largest meeting of food communities. As part of the evening program, the screening is scheduled for October 25 at 20:30 (room ‘Sala Terra Madre’). The film’s director/producer Judith Lit will present the screening and participate in a post-screening discussion.

The film arrives at a crucial moment in the global conversation on food. 2014 has been declared by the United Nations to be the “International Year of Family Farming,” as a spotlight on the small-scale farmers around the world struggling in the face of large-scale industrial agriculture.

AFTER WINTER, SPRING tells the story of a rural community in southwest France grappling with a profound question: will it be the last generation of family farmers in a region continuously cultivated for over five thousand years? Their story is recorded by one of their neighbors, an American filmmaker who grew up on her family’s farm in Pennsylvania. Inter-weaving her story and theirs, the film explores the nature of the farming life and the impact of rapid modernization on families whose survival is tied to the land. As the farmer’s stories unfold, we see their responses to change…the losses and the surprising adaptations. AFTER WINTER, SPRING reveals the human story of family farming at a turning point in history.

The film was chosen to tour in France as part of the Mois du Documentaire and has played to sold-out screenings in numerous festivals including The Seattle International Film Festival, The Environmental Film Festival in the Nations Capital (in Washington, DC), The International Ecological Television Festival “to Save & Preserve” (in Russia), and many more. The film won a number of awards including: the Audience Award (Mill Valley Film Festival), Best Foreign Documentary (Arizona International Film Festival), Jury Award (Caméras des Champs Festival in France) and was chosen as one of the Best of Festival at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.