Fiercely independent 90-year-old Agatha Bock lives alone on her ancestral farm. Despite health challenges, she resolutely tends to her land, cultivating heirloom seeds passed down through generations. Employing antiquated techniques, Agatha plants and harvests her expansive field of watermelons, beans, flowers, herbs, and vegetables entirely by hand. Without a car, cell phone, running water, or even a functioning landline, Agatha’s meditative processes and daily rituals form a vivid counterpoint to the rapid pace of contemporary life.
Shot by an all-female crew, including director Amalie Atkins and cinematographer Rhayne Vermette, over six years on 16mm film, using a windup Bolex and an ArriSR2 studio camera, the project captures the handmade materiality of film and Agatha’s tactile world. Her century-old farmhouse, with its grey exterior, contrasts with the bursts of vibrant color and texture inside. Unchanged since the 1950s, her home serves as a living archive of a vanishing era, rooted in her esoteric practices that predate modern conveniences. Agatha’s Almanac offers a window into the experiences of a nearly lost generation, whose values and ways of living are at risk of fading as the world rapidly changes.