The New Peasants - Premiere & Q&A
Director Jordan Osmond and cast
Theatre Royal, Castlemaine - Cinema (Castlemaine, VIC)
Friday, 1 August 2025 7:00 pm
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Jordan Osmond from Happen Films, along with Meg Ulman, Patrick Jones and their 12-year-old son Woody, who feature in the film.
Jordan lived on their property for 6 months while shooting the film. Happen Films has previously made three films with the family over the course of 5 years.
Synopsis:
What happens when the values of the culture
you’ve always known no longer align with how
you see the world?
The New Peasants offers an intimate look into the
life of Meg, Patrick, Zephyr, and Woody. A
family who, for 20 years, have been transitioning
away from modern industrial culture toward a
radically simple, sustainable, and beautiful way
of life.
Concerns about the industrial food system and
environmental crises provided the family’s initial
motivation to live differently. Now it’s 15 years
since they’ve eaten from a supermarket or owned
a car. The household, living intentionally below
the poverty line and meeting 80% of their needs
without using money, is nonetheless rich in so
many ways. Wealth is found in their cellar of
preserved foods, connections with community,
saved seeds, homesteading skills and the time to
focus on what really matters in life. Yet the
decision to live this way has brought profound
challenges for their family, in the form of their
eldest son’s continued encounters with the law.
These experiences have produced immense grief,
but, in the end, also joy.
This film shares the unfolding journey of a
family rejecting the mainstream culture and
working to create a new one. A culture and
economy that draw on ways of the past while
stepping joyfully into the future. For everything
they’ve let go, something has been gained. With
every challenge, something learned.
Jordan lived on their property for 6 months while shooting the film. Happen Films has previously made three films with the family over the course of 5 years.
Synopsis:
What happens when the values of the culture
you’ve always known no longer align with how
you see the world?
The New Peasants offers an intimate look into the
life of Meg, Patrick, Zephyr, and Woody. A
family who, for 20 years, have been transitioning
away from modern industrial culture toward a
radically simple, sustainable, and beautiful way
of life.
Concerns about the industrial food system and
environmental crises provided the family’s initial
motivation to live differently. Now it’s 15 years
since they’ve eaten from a supermarket or owned
a car. The household, living intentionally below
the poverty line and meeting 80% of their needs
without using money, is nonetheless rich in so
many ways. Wealth is found in their cellar of
preserved foods, connections with community,
saved seeds, homesteading skills and the time to
focus on what really matters in life. Yet the
decision to live this way has brought profound
challenges for their family, in the form of their
eldest son’s continued encounters with the law.
These experiences have produced immense grief,
but, in the end, also joy.
This film shares the unfolding journey of a
family rejecting the mainstream culture and
working to create a new one. A culture and
economy that draw on ways of the past while
stepping joyfully into the future. For everything
they’ve let go, something has been gained. With
every challenge, something learned.