NHFF Short Films Inspire Energy Efficency Practices and Food Production Appreciation

Thursday’s line-up may have consisted of mostly short films but they certainly weren’t anything short of fascinating.

Let’s take a look into one of today’s short  film blocks:

The Lamar Buffalo Ranch Project

The short film block started out with a clip sponsored by Toyota in which they re-used old hybrid batteries to produce energy that replaces fuel-consuming generators. This visually stunning clip gives a quick preview of the Lamar Buffalo Ranch Sustainable Energy Project that was designed to improve energy efficiency in the Yellowstone Park area, and leaves you wanting to know more.

Growing Local

Also included in this short film of this block, was Growing Local. It included three clips that inspire viewers to eat local. The clips explored the topics of dairy farming depletion, mass produced meat supply, as well as agricultural farming process. The overarching theme of Growing Local? As humans, we should want to know where our food is coming from. The film inspired viewers to ask questions about their food and to appreciate food production like we appreciate all other types of production cycles.

Food Fight—Inside the Battle for Market Basket

Food Fight – Inside the Battle for Market Basket features footage of what went on behind the scenes of the Market Basket protest in the summer of 2014. This short but informative clip reveals the strategy that went in to the protests and dwindling supply and distribution. With the help of loyal customers and press coverage, Market Basket was able to survive this corporate battle, and director Jay Childs was there to catch it all on film.

Childs joined viewers for this screening to share his own experience with the film:

According to Childs—it all started with a beer, his old friend and Assistant Manager of the Stratham Market Basket location, and the fascinating family story that dated back 20 years. Jay was doing preliminary interviews before the Artie T crisis occurred, so it was only natural he start capturing the story as it was unfolding.

Childs provided more details about the boycott, such as how work stopped for a full 6 weeks, but it only took a week for the customers to organically join in the boycotting as well. He also shared with the crowd that MIT has published a case on the boycott, UMASS has published a book on it, Oxford has learned about it and even Harvard is expected to publish something in the future.

Childs was most fascinated by how employees of Market Basket stepped out of their roles that they had worked for over 40 years to make a stand, and reinforce change. The last question an audience member asked was what we all wanted to know with most short films—“what happened next, is there more clips?” To this, Childs responded that “the film is still in progress and will be expected to be finished by the end of the year or early 2016.”

We’re looking forward to it, thank you for joining us at NHFF, Jay!

Missed this short film block, but want to catch some others? Take a peek at our festival schedule here.