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. Made intentionally with sensory sensitive viewers in mind, the film carves out a (mostly) calm space in a chaotic world.
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 serves as a powerful conduit for often-overlooked stories, amplifying voices and rural perspectives. Agatha’s life 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.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
World Premiere: CPH:DOX, DOX:AWARD Competition 2025
2025 Hot Docs Festival (North American Premiere)
2025 Sydney FF (Australian Premiere)
2025 Shanghai IFF (Asian Premiere)
2025 Galway Film Fleadh (Irish Premiere)
2025 Rhodope Film Fest (Bulgarian Premiere)
2025 Dokufest
2025 Traveling Film Festival / Sydney FF
2025 Camden International Film Festival
2025 Brugger Dokumentarfilmtage
2025 Hamburg Film Festival (German Premiere)
2025 Doctober
2025 Vancouver IFF
2025 MIRAGE Oslo (Norwegian Premiere)
2025 Bergen IFF
2025 Folkestone DFF (UK Premiere)
2025 IDFA (Dutch Premiere)
2025 RIDM
2025 Whistler Film Festival
2025 Budapest International Documentary Festival
And more… Cinetopia:DOC at Filmhouse Edinburgh
Upcoming: DocPoint (Feb. 3-8)
AWARDS
- Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs Festival 2025
“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. We are very happy to give the 2025 Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature Documentary award to Agatha’s Almanac by Amalie Atkins.”
Jury Statement, Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award
- Best Feature Documentary at Devour! The Food Film Fest 2025
- World Documentary Award at Whistler Film Festival 2025
- Special Mention, section In your hands – the future of knowledge, at Budapest International Documentary Festival 2026
PRESS
Reviews: TIFF – Canada’s Top Ten, Trow, Filmmaker Magazine, The Tyee, Bianet, POV Magazine, The Joy of Movies, In The Seats, What She Said, RANGE, Original Cin, Hye’s Musings, Shedoesthecity, Business Doc Europe, CBC, Moviepie, Politiken, High on Films, Film Fest Report, Variety Interviews: The Curb, ScreenFish
***
“In Agatha’s Almanac, director Amalie Atkins paints a tender portrait of her aunt Agatha, highlighting her ingenuity and resilience.“
Aurelie Geron, Film Fest Report
“Agatha’s Almanac is a precious testament to a skillset and a thoughtful way of consuming, both of which are gradually fading as our elders pass on.”
***
“Agatha’s Almanac is a work of extraordinary gentleness, luminously devoted to the natural world. … Atkins narrates with affection and warmth. There’s a depth of regard she has for her aunt, more importantly for the personhood and agency she embodies, and it shines through in every frame. The film transmits Agatha’s lightness of being, along with her unbreakable will.“
Debanjan Dhar, High on Films
“Rhayne Vermette’s camera brings a lusciousness, a vibrance so exquisite and glimmering it gently soaks us. This is an effortlessly beguiling film, working miraculously as both an elusive, immediate relic. It feels spun with care, love and passionate attention. In Agatha’s Almanac, Amalie Atkins bottles the essence of a charming figure, showing the vessel of her beliefs, doing more for the art of slow living than anything has ever, evoking a way of being, inhabiting the everyday, steered in implicit resistance to a world barrelling forth. Agatha’s story is an invitation to consider all that envelops us and cherish it.”
***
“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
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Amalie Atkins
Amalie Atkins (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Renowned for her films and video installations, Atkins creates cinematic fables by blending 16 mm film, performance, textiles, installations, and analogue photography. Her practice merges traditional elements with a hands-on, do-it-yourself aesthetic to imprint a fictional world onto everyday life.
Her films have screened nationally and internationally, including at the Berlin International Art Film Festival (Berlin, Germany), Bucharest Film Awards (Romania), Festival International Signes de Nuit (Paris, France), Montreal Independent Film Festival (Montreal, QC), Dresdner Schmalfilmtage (Dresden, Germany), and Analogue Resilience (Toronto, ON).
Shot entirely on 16 mm film with an all female crew over the last six years, Agatha’s Almanac is her first feature film.
Filmography (selection)
Early Individual Chapters of Agatha’s Almanac:
- A THICK SKIN (2024) 16 mm film, 4:00 minutes, Creative Documentary
- WATCH YOUR CORNER (2024), 16 mm film, 4:00 minutes, Creative Documentary
- I AM IN THE GARDEN (2024) 16 mm film, 4:00 minutes, Creative Documentary.
THE DIAMOND EYE ASSEMBLY a triple film installation
- REQUIEM FOR WIND & WATER (2019) 16 mm film with optical track, 25:16 minutes experimental fiction
- THE DIAMOND EYE ASSEMBLY (2019)16 mm film with optical track, 25:16 minutes experimental fiction
- TRANSVECTION (2019) 35 mm film with optical track, 4:00 minutes, vertical 9:16 format, experimental fiction
WE LIVE ON THE EDGE OF DISASTER & IMAGINE WE ARE IN A MUSICAL was a touring exhibition that included six large scale film installations:
- THE SUMMONING (2014) 16 mm film, 3:28 minutes, experimental fiction.
- THE BRAID HARVESTERS (2013) 16 mm film, 5:00 min, experimental fiction.
- LISTENING TO THE PAST / LISTENING TO THE FUTURE
(2014) 16 mm film, 3:00 minutes. - EMBRACE (2013), HD Video, 3:26 minutes, performance video.
- SCENES FROM A SECRET WORLD (2009), Color 16 mm film, 8:00 minutes, experimental fiction.
- THREE MINUTE MIRACLE (2008), Color 16 mm film, 13:00 minutes, experimental fiction.
TRACKING THE WOLF/ THREE MINUTE MIRACLE (2008) Color 16 mm film, 13 minutes, experimental fiction, performance with 16mm film and live musical score.
The Tooth Maker (2003) Black & White super 8 film with audio on cassette tape, 3 minutes.
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Amalie Atkins
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Minema Cinema Productions
Canada
amalieatkins@yahoo.ca
https://amalieatkins.ca/contact/
CREDITS
Written & directed by Amalie Atkins
Camera operator Rhayne Vermette
Sound Charlene Moore
Editing Amalie Atkins
Music Green-House (Olive Ardizoni); Castle If (Jess Forrest; Katarina Gryvul, Andrea-Jane Cornell
Producer Amalie Atkins
Production company Minema Cinema Productions
