On Goat Farming
Nathan R Keowen
18 mins | 2024
Two new farmhands struggle to adapt to the harsh reality of farm life as the small Washington goat farm where they live and work transitions into a challenging winter.
Sponsored by:
Friday Harbor Film Festival
With a difficult winter approaching, two new farmhands struggle to adapt to the reality of life on a small dairy goat farm at the base of Washington's Mount Rainier. Annie Hanock and Emily Forsyth are faced with the contrasting expectations of idyllic homesteading, and the gritty actuality as they experience the day-to-day operations of the farm.
As the changing of the seasons looms, the two prepare for the physical and emotional challenges they know are coming. The personal journeys of Annie and Emily force them to reflect on their complicated relationships with death and life on the farm, providing an intimate glimpse into the world of this close-knit farming community.
Nathan R Keowen
Nathan Keowen shot "On Goat Farming" with his producer Carson Bennett in the Fall and Winter of 2023. This is Nathan’s second documentary short after his Loyola Marymount University thesis “High Sierras," a docu-comedy about the true story of the crash of the Yosemite weed plane in 1977.
Nathan is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, holding a dual degree in Film Production and Screenwriting. He is originally from Sacramento.
He was awarded the James Wong Best Picture Award for his student thesis "Spaceman."
CREDITS
In the production of “On Goat Farming,” we set out to create the portrait of a farm and its farmers, revealing the lives and struggles of small-scale farming. In making the film, it also meant my producer and I would live and work on the farm, becoming a part of the farming community. Our process lent itself well to producing what ultimately became an intimate study of death and life on the farm.