The Female Farmer Project is looking for support in putting together a documentary that will tell the story of the heroes history forgot — America’s female farmers.
Audra Mulkern, founder, writer, and photographer for the Seattle-based Female Farmer Project, has started a crowdfunding campaign to produce “Women’s Work: The Untold Story of America’s Female Farmers.” The goal is to get the documentary on a national broadcast platform and Mulkhern has partnered with North by Northwest Studios on the project. So far they have received interest from multiple networks, and are currently working with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on potential distribution ideas.
The group has been scouring regional libraries and archives, reaching out to historical societies, and sourcing out of print books to find these heroines. They are also asking for folks to nominate their grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and more.
Mulkern said the film will explore these women’s stories through their journals and pictures, meeting historians along the way. And they will travel to the farms to meet the women who have inherited their legacies and learn what lessons they have learned from their ancestors.
Mulkern will host the journey as she has been successfully telling the stories of women in agriculture through portraits, profiles, and from stages internationally. Her work has been featured, published, and exhibited globally. The collection was recently in exhibition at United Nations in New York, and is in permanent exhibition at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington DC. The film is the next step in amplifying the voices of women in agriculture.
Mulkern said the ideal timeline in getting the film done would be to complete this round of funding by May and begin production right away so that this film can air during Women’s History Month, March 2019.
So far, the campaign has raised 13 percent of the $50,000 goal for the film.
