Harvest Film Festival explores our relationship with farming, food and land through its curated programme of fiction, documentary and art films. It also encourages communities, in both rural and urban places, to gather and celebrate the season and their locality.
Harvest Film Festival 2026 – Apocalyptic Visions is guest curated by the West Dorset arts collective Chasing Cow Productions. Members of the group are working on their first feature film (Elecampane) and have put together a programme reflecting the world of the film – where medieval cosmology and folklore collides with climate shocks and social transformation.
The one-day festival will feature a selection of classic and cult films, live music and talks on medieval wall paintings and ‘What it feels like when worlds end’. There will also be an exhibition space where Chasing Cow will share some Elecampane production materials. Lunch and dinner made with local produce will also be available to purchase on site, as well as a bar in the evening.
Harvest Film Festival first emerged in 2013 at Lower Hewood Farm, an organic mixed smallholding in West Dorset producing organic vegetables and meat boxes for sale locally. Co-founded with the artist Maria Benjamin (now farming full-time in Cumbria), the owner Alexa de Ferranti hosted the first Harvest Film Festival in the converted buildings and outbuildings of the farm, with mostly local audiences seated on straw bales as they watched films, listened to talks and the ate a harvest supper with organic produce straight from the fields.
In 2017 Harvest Film Festival was curated by Alexa de Ferranti and Common Ground. The day-long programme of fiction, documentaries, archive films and art pieces, short films and features was launched at Lower Hewood Farm.
For further information please email info@lowerhewoodfarm.org