Folklorist and filmmaker Kristin Catherwood hails from a century farm just outside of Ceylon, Sask., a familiar setting that stars in her recent short film produced in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada for a new film series about the pandemic.
Catherwood is one of the 40 Canadian creators and filmmakers featured in The Curve, a pan-Canadian collection of 30 short films and documentaries exploring the experience of COVID-19 and navigating this historic time of uncertainty.
The prairie filmmaker’s documentary In the Garden on the Farm is one of the first few films in the series to be released, launched on Aug. 24 alongside films K’i Tah Amongst the Birch by filmmaker and activist Melaw Nakehk’o and Thursday by director Galen Johnson.
In the Garden on the Farm follows Catherwood’s experience earlier this spring after returning to the family farm as the pandemic shut down the province. Catherwood and her father are both preparing for spring in rural Saskatchewan: Catherwood planting her garden while thinking about her mother and grandmothers, and her father preparing to begin seeding.
The story is one both personal and thematic for Catherwood, who wanted to highlight the ways that food production can create connectedness between Canadians — large scale agriculture and small-scale personal food production, both rooted in history and family.
“When this was going on and everything was shutting down except the essential services, I just remember thinking about our farm and how essential it was that we get the crop in,” said Catherwood. “As if unfolded, it became a more personal story rooted in memory and tradition and nature, but there was that seed, I guess, of the idea of food security [and how] we still rely so much on what our farms produce here in Saskatchewan, especially during times of uncertainty.”
In the Garden on the Farm also addresses uncertainty in another way, touching on the deeper topic of staying in touch with family and seeking comfort during these kinds of times. For her and many others, she felt, the pandemic sent people searching for something familiar.
“For me, at the time, it was very comforting to know that whatever was happening with the pandemic and the uncertainty with that, spring was still coming and the geese were still coming home and nature was going on,” said Catherwood. “I feel a sense of gratitude that I had the chance to pause and go back home, [to be] grounded in that environment on the farm with nature and family.”
In sharing that feeling in her short film, Catherwood hopes that people across the country can find similarities in their experiences too.
“I hope that people maybe relate to the themes of just connection to family and rootedness and even nature,” said Catherwood. “I hope when people watch it, that maybe they get a sense of that in their own lives, of ‘what’s important to me.’”
The title image from Kristin Catherwood's short film In the Garden on the Farm. (credit: Kristin Catherwood/NFB)The Radville-based filmmaker is pleased to be a part of the NFB’s series and to share a sliver of the rural prairie experience with a greater Canadian audience — something she strives to do in all of her work.
“I am proud to be able to represent rural Saskatchewan because we’re not always on the radar in Canada, we’re sometimes a little bit off the beaten path for people,” said Catherwood. “This is a really unique opportunity to share a little bit of my personal story and my family story, but also a story from the rural prairies to be part of this larger collection of Canadian stories.”
She is also excited to be featured alongside a number of other talented Canadian creators, as the series continues over the next few weeks with more film releases. She feels the series features such different perspectives in each film, with the potential to create a connection between different parts of the country.
“I think what’s fascinating about Canada is our diversity, and in watching [K’i Tah Amongst the Birch] I saw a lot of parallels with my film about rural Saskatchewan,” said Catherwood. “So I hope that people who watch the series will feel that too and realize as Canadians how different and diverse we are and yet how connected.”
All of the films produced for The Curve, including In the Garden on the Farm by Kristin Catherwood, can be viewed on the National Film Board of Canada’s website, on The Curve’s unique page.
