86 minutes / Color
Closed Captioned
Release: 2025
Fiercely independent 90-year-old Agatha Bock lives alone on her ancestral farm. Despite health challenges, she defiantly 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 inherent in both the medium of film and Agatha’s tactile world. Her century-old farmhouse, with its grey exterior, contrasts with the bursts of vibrant colour 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.
“Poetic and playful, yet intensely political, and a film – and a protagonist! – that puts into practice what others only preach, this one is a rare and precious flower in the garden of contemporary cinema. Handcrafted with great care in a truly creative spirit over several years, it is a reminder that what might appear radically anti-conformist both as a way of life and of filmmaking may simply be the most authentic.” —Jury Statement, Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award
“In Agatha’s Almanac, director Amalie Atkins paints a tender portrait of her aunt Agatha, highlighting her ingenuity and resilience. [It's] a precious testament to a skillset and a thoughtful way of consuming, both of which are gradually fading as our elders pass on.” —Aurelie Geron, Film Fest Report
“This is an effortlessly beguiling film, working miraculously as both an elusive, immediate relic. It feels spun with care, love and passionate attention.” —Debanjan Dhar, High on Films
“[A] charmingly meditative and gently illuminating portrait... The director’s aunt is an engagingly strong and forthright character, and the film delights in revealing – and revelling in – her unique life with charm, warmth and real compassion.” —Mark Adams, Business Doc Europe
Select Accolades
A poignant experimental documentary that explores the effects of tragedy and remembrance on a bi-cultural family.
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