A Rich Life
A Rich Life is a chronicle of an unusual encounter between a group of young people in the 1970s living in a commune in Quebec and a farmers’ cooperative. The integration of the famous back-to-the-land movement, a variant of the hippie movement, with the agricultural world wasn’t always successful. But the commune of “Grand 4” (a reference to the 1970s agricultural cooperative) found remarkable stability. The cooperative members’ forward-thinking approach undoubtedly played a significant role. This chronicle originated as an academic volume on the ideological structures of the rural world. Revisited 50 years later, the images constitute a visual ethnographic document of a world that has radically transformed. On this journey through time, we follow the members of the cooperative and their families according to a seasonal chronology, occasionally deviating from the agricultural context of the era. The drudgery of daily life gives way to the joys of the sugar shack; religious observance blends with playful celebrations; and the frozen or muddy earth gives way to harvest time. The mother becomes a tractor driver (her daughter will take over 15 years later), and the peaceful, overworked farmer can become a highly effective protester. The young learn early, and the old work late. It’s a rich life.
To learn more about this very brief chronicle, see here
