DATE CHANGE: SOUL OF A FARMER Streaming Premiere Now October 19

First Run Features presents the streaming premiere of Roger Sherman's new award-winning documentary film The Soul of a Farmer beginning October 19, 2021.

The Soul of A Farmer follows Patty Gentry, a former chef, as she battles to earn a living on her three acre Early Girl Farm on Long Island. Isabella Rossellini, from whom Patty rents her land tells us, “Patty is the Picasso of vegetables!”

The documentary upends the romance of farm-to-table. Buying fresh produce directly from farmers markets and at farm stands is wonderful, but the farmer’s life is a constant struggle. We watch Patty work her butt off (with her small, mostly female team) seven days a week, growing the vegetables her top chef clients treasure.

Patty’s passion is to constantly improve her soil, increase her yield of organic vegetables, and just as urgently to be thinking of how to stay afloat. Says filmmaker Roger Sherman, "my portrait of Patty is a portrait of every small independent farmer."

Participants

Isabella Rossellini, actor/activist, daughter of Ingrid Bergman, owns the land Patty rents in Brookhaven, Long Island.

Missy Robbins, chef/restaurateur, Lilia and Misi in Brooklyn. Best Chef NYC James Beard Foundation. Brooklyn. Chef-of-the-Year Esquire.

Andrew Tarlow, restaurateur, Roman’s, Diner, Marlow & Sons, Reynard, Achilles Heel. “The restaurateur who invented Brooklyn,” Bon Appetit.

Anita Lo, Anisa, Michelin star, NY Times three stars in Greenwich Village. Iron Chef winner, she beat Mario Batali. Manhattan.

Sohui Kim, Insa, Gage & Tollner, The Good Fork. Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list five years running, “Essential Eater 38” list three years in a row, all in Brooklyn.

Mary Attea, chef, The Musket Room, Michelin star, former executive chef at Anissa, Manhattan.

Jennifer Lasker, Patty’s partner, now wife.

Filmmaker Biography

Roger Sherman’s films have won two Academy Award nominations, an Emmy, a Peabody, and a James Beard Award. He is a producer, director, cinematographer, still photographer, author, and a founder of Florentine Films.

The Wall Street Journal said Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds was “Perhaps the best film ever produced in the American Masters PBS series.” The iconic filmmaker DA Pennebaker said, “Everyone should stand up and cheer" after watching The Second Life of Jamie P. About Medal of Honor The New York Post said, “There won’t be anything more worth your while on TV.” Charlie Rose called his film Alexander Calder “an extraordinary American masterpiece.” Kat Kinsman, writing for CNN’s Eatocracy, said of The Restaurateur, a portrait of Danny Meyer, "Beg, borrow as needed, but do yourself a favor and see Roger Sherman's doc." "I got goosebumps at the opening credits” wrote The Boston Globe about In Search of Israeli Cuisine, a portrait of the Israeli people told through food, conflict and all; The New Face of Israeli Cuisine is its followup. His book, Ready, Steady, Shoot: A Pro’s Guide to Smartphone Video, was written for the millions of people who record their lives.