JANET BEST
A New Life on the Land: Jewish Farmers in Canada (Trailer)
As told on camera by early settlers, their children and grandchildren, this is a story of Jews who came to farm Canadian soil, to savour the odour of prairie flowers and cope with blizzards, locusts....and debt. It's about escape from poverty and oppression in Eastern Europe, of first winters living in underground shelters, of clearing the land and bringing in first crops, of the woman's contribution, of schools and synagogues, of community get-togethers and singing. From the West to Quebec and Ontario, from two hot runaway oxen in 1900 to a prize-winning dairy herd today, from grain to organic vegetables, an ongoing story of Jewish farming in Canada.
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Played at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (May 2014), Bucharest Jewish Film Festival (November 2014) as well as in Montreal, Ottawa, Durham, North Carolina and Vancouver.
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Documentary film 56 min. 44 sec.
Producer & Director – Dov Okouneff
Co-Director, Editor & Camera – Janet Best
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