Winner, Best Canadian Feature Documentary, Hot Docs 2025
Canada’s Top Ten
“You can have a life with joy and hope and love, but it’s not always easy.” This is one of many nuggets of wisdom 90-year-old Agatha Bock offers from her solitary slice of paradise in southern Manitoba. Her aging ailments are reflected in the sprawling maples and rustic buildings on her 54-acre family farm, which requires constant maintenance. Meanwhile, abundant crops, pickles and jellies signal optimistic preparations for the future. Efficiently cultivating a garden with heirloom seeds, methodical processes of sowing, harvesting and preserving by hand easily fill her days. In 16mm detail, delicious pops of red and green showcase seasons of simple living sprinkled with tips on planting potatoes and picking watermelons. With a handcrafted aesthetic perfectly matching its subject, Amalie Atkins’s marvellous debut documentary honours her aunt with a guide to living in harmony with nature through honest work, where nothing’s wasted and self-sufficiency is a necessity. Alexander Rogalski, Hot Docs
