The 22-minute op-doc by filmmaker Hailey Berens follows a small family farm in central Iowa across a full crop cycle — from spring planting through summer maintenance to fall harvest and the early winter accounting that closes the year. The film is the kind of patient agricultural documentary that the form occasionally produces and that the broader media environment increasingly struggles to support.

The farm

The farm at the centre of the film is the kind of small operation that has been the subject of decades of policy attention without being well-served by most of it. The family that runs it has done so for three generations; whether a fourth will is one of the film's underlying questions.

The cycle

The crop cycle is presented at its actual pace. Planting decisions, weather waiting, the technical details of equipment maintenance, the financial decisions about input pricing and forward sales. Each is given the time the film's running length permits.

The verdict

The film is the kind of agricultural documentary that the form needs more of. The questions it raises about the smaller-farm sector deserve the patient engagement the film provides. The platform's distribution will, on past patterns, partially undersell the audience it deserves.