Bullfrog Communities, a project of Bullfrog Films, is thrilled to announce the availability of major award-winning summer releases for virtual or in-person community and campus-wide screenings. This summer, our new releases include documentaries about...

SUSTAINABLE FAMILY FARMS

Farms are increasingly under threat. The inputs required to compete in a world dominated by Big Ag / conventional farming and the effects they have on the farm have decimated profitability. Aggregated with an aging population of farmers, decreasing farmland and climate change, there are serious implications for food production, the environment and the next generation of farmers. How will agriculture sustain the land, the soil, the people and communities? How much of what we value are we willing to destroy?

In MY COUNTRY NO MORE, dwindling farm income opens the door to the fossil-fuel industry, which is eager to exploit the Bakken Shale and extract big short-term fracking profits out of the land. When the long-term implications of short-term thinking begin to threaten the viability of the land and the character of a community, a farmer striving to rebuild the family farm finds her voice.

Similarly, in FARMSTEADERS, a couple works to revive the family dairy farm in a world scarred by a corporate-driven model that threatens their long-term viability. This beautifully-shot film touches on issues including land transfer and the imperative to develop local and regional markets and food systems to support small farms, while honoring the day-to-day sweat equity of good people trying to steward the land in tenuous circumstances. In FROM SEED TO SEED, stewardship of the land takes center stage as a group of organic farmers work to combine traditional and modern farming techniques to regenerate the soil, so it is resilient to the environmental change already on our doorstep and is fruitful for the long term.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE JUSTICE

When it comes to natural disasters, often the government doesn't help the communities that are in dire need. COOKED takes a closer look at the 1995 Chicago heat wave and examines how systemic racism lead to hundreds of deaths in Black and elderly communities. Director Judith Helfand explores how Disaster Preparedness from environmental disasters like Hurricane Katrina to this one often overlook marginalized and poor people, thus putting their lives and livelihoods in danger.

IMMIGRATION AND STATE VIOLENCE

The long-term legacy of economic injustice, political instability, war, violence and exploitation of Central America has led to a crisis. Eager to survive, the young and in-danger travel a harrowing path north through and to countries indifferent to their suffering and savage in their response. Many perish along the way. BORDER SOUTH gives voice to Central American migrants in an intimate portrayal of the trauma suffered during their journeys, as well as the attempts by anthropologists to document the results of violence.

ELDER VOICES is a meditation on the destructiveness of hatred manifested as state violence, and the power of love, as told by those who lived through Japanese-American internment and the Holocaust, and conscientious objectors. What lessons can we learn from our elders to build a better, more just and peaceful world?

These films are available both virtually and for fall events. For more information on booking a virtual screening right now, please go to Bullfrog Communities Streaming.

Click the links above or below to see trailers and for more information.

MY COUNTRY NO MORE
The oil boom in North Dakota sets off a crisis in a rural community, forced to confront the meaning of progress as they fight for a disappearing way of life.
National Broadcast, PBS Independent Lens
Best Feature, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
"Thoughtful...Personalizes serious issues...Despite concentrating on North Dakota, the program speaks to a wider audience concerned with rural issues, land ownership, energy resources, and corporate interests."
Sue-Ellen Beauregard, Booklist
"The human cost of our reliance on fossil fuels is measured not only in the looming horrors of climate change and threats to physical health from pollution, but also from the destruction of community and sense of place that comes as land is devoured by every new refinery and pipeline... A deeply moving story... This compassionate film shows that along with the sadness of loss there is also hope as courageous people fight to protect their homes, families, and way of life."
Richard York, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies, University of Oregon, Co-author, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth

COOKED
From award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand, reveals the ways in which class, race, and zip code predetermine unequal response and recovery to environmental disaster.
Nationwide Broadcast on PBS's "Independent Lens"
Best Feature Film, EarthxFilm
Best Film, Environmental Film Festival at Yale
DOC NYC
"Shines a light on the issues of poverty, race, class, and education that underlie how natural disasters take lives."
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"Chronicles the painful truth that waiting for the government can be hazardous to your health. The twin vulnerability of poverty and race placed African Americans at special risk in the 1995 Chicago heat wave. In America, zip code is more important than genetic code and some people and communities have the wrong complexion for protection."
Dr. Robert D. Bullard, Professor, Urban Planning and Environmental Policy, Texas Southern University, Author, Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina

FROM SEED TO SEED
Follows a group of Canadian organic farmers over the course of one growing season as they adopt agroecological growing techniques to create sustainable and resilient food and farming systems.
Best of the Fest, Colorado Environmental Film Festival
Audience Choice Award, Soo Film Festival
Best Documentary Film, Popular Culture Association, DC
"Took my breath away. I think everyone who eats should see it! As a professor, I could teach an entire course in regenerative agriculture using nothing more than this film. As a farmer, I know of no documentaries that provide a more honest and clear-cut exposé of the emotional territory between hope and despair within which every farmer lives. The farmers exemplify the paradox created when striving toward nature-based farming while being beaten down by a changing and unpredictable climate and enticed by the easy-way-out offered by industrial agriculture."
Gary S. Kleppel, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, University at Albany-SUNY, Co-owner, Longfield Farm
"A loving and enjoyable encouragement for anyone who cares about food and farming."
Claire Hope Cummings, Author, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds

FARMSTEADERS
Follows Nick and Celeste Nolan and their young family on a journey to resurrect Nick's grandfather's dairy farm as a locally sustainable family farm.
Best Feature Film, Audience Award, Indie Grits
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
"A personal and intimate story that will create empathy between viewers and those brave souls who are farming against all odds in a globalized market system that cares little for the individual family, their historical ties to the land, and collective agrarian commitments, and instead prioritizes output above all else."
Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, Director for Women for the Land, American Farmland Trust
"... Isn't a film focused on the evils of factory farming or the greed of big corporations; instead, it's an intimate and exalting look at the small family farm, the everyday hero of our food system."
Mother Nature Network

BORDER SOUTH
A vivid portrait of Central American immigrants who disappear along the trail running from southern Mexico to the US border, exposing a global migration system that renders human beings invisible in life, as well as in death.
Best Feature Film, Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival
Winner, Indie Memphis Film Festival
Best Feature Film, Indie Grits Film Festival
"Captures the terrifying experiences of the migrants and the meticulous support of their allies with enormous human poignancy and stunning artistic accomplishment. This powerful work of art speaks and teaches volumes about the dramatic failure of contemporary migration policy. This film is innovative in its coverage, original in its choice of unusual and unexpected material, and powerful in its message."
Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard University, Author, Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global Age
"The dangers and threats they face are daunting, but equally evident is the range of personalities, the ingenuity and the creativity they bring...BORDER SOUTH's many small, revealing moments evidence the power of documentary, to tell us what is left out of even excellent researched reporting on this urgently topical issue."
Patricia Aufderheide, International Documentary Association

ELDER VOICES
Japanese Americans, European Jews and peace activists who came of age during the Depression and WWII address the political storm clouds gathering today.
"Beautifully integrates current events with those of the past. The human face of struggle, survival, resistance, compassion, and hope. This film draws us in on deeply emotional and personal levels. A wake up call for our times. Unforgettable."
Ann Doubleday, Adult Services Librarian, Burnham Memorial Library
"At a time when we are besieged by strident divisiveness and competing agendas, ELDER VOICES provides both welcome refuge and a wise warning...The film's warning — that a history unacknowledged and left unaddressed is bound to repeat itself — is balanced by the inspirational stories of these elders, who recount the small acts of bravery and moments of compassion and spiritual strength that helped them endure anti-Semitism, racism, unjustified incarceration, and the constant threat of death without losing hope that humankind would find a more peaceful and tolerant way of life for all."
Joanne Bernardi, Professor of Japanese Studies and Film and Media Studies, University of Rochester

See http://bullfrogcommunities.com for a complete list of our titles. If you have questions, contact me at [email protected].

Coming Soon: THE VOW FROM HIROSHIMA, an intimate portrait of a survivor of Hiroshima who has devoted her life to ridding the world of nuclear weapons; TRE MAISON DASAN follows the lives of three boys growing up, each with a parent in prison; LIKE ANY OTHER KID showcases relationships between incarcerated youth and staff who use love and structure to guide and teach youth offenders how to take responsibility for themselves; THE TOXIC REIGNS OF RESENTMENT dives into the emotion of resentment and how it defines culture and politics today; THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS shows how cohousing can be both private and build community; '63 BOYCOTT connects the massive 1963 Chicago Public Schools boycott to contemporary issues around race, education, school closings, and youth activism; BEATRIX FARRAND'S AMERICAN LANDSCAPES explores the life and work of America's first female landscape architect; and more…