For many Winnipeggers, life without cell phones, internet access or even running water is practically unfathomable, but this is how Agatha Bock lives on her 54-acre farm in rural southern Manitoba. 

Agatha’s Almanac, a documentary directed by Bock’s Manitoba-born and Saskatoon-based filmmaker niece Amalie Atkins, captures the life and everyday gardening wisdom of this 90-year-old solo dweller. Filmed over six years by an all-woman crew on a 16 mm film camera, the result is a colourful meditation on simple rural living — an antithesis to the hustle culture that seems to permeate much of urban life. 

“We have spent a lot of time together in the last six years, more than ever before, and that was part of the impetus for making the project, because she is the last remaining [woman] in the family […] It seems important to spend time with her,” said Atkins about the film’s conception.

Bock might lead a slow life, but she is anything but idle. She spends her time tending dozens of crops by hand, and she is seen sowing seeds, picking strawberries and threshing beans by herself. Bock has a certain thoughtfulness when preparing dishes, and she partakes in what Atkins calls “the pierogi ritual” where she methodically makes large batches of pierogies. 

Bock’s lifestyle has allowed her to cultivate a special relationship with food that not many can relate to. In an article for CBC, Atkins wrote that the crew once filmed Bock carving the rind off of a watermelon she grew for over two hours. They later discovered that the watermelon grew from heirloom seeds that have been in her family for over 40 years, making each fruit a vestige of a loved one.

“These connections would emerge, and it would make sense exactly why it was important to her,” Atkins explained.  

“I remember once she was irritated with me that I cut half a watermelon up for the guests, [and] she’s like, ‘I do not want to see that wasted,’ because she’s grown it, it’s taken months. And it’s not just any watermelon, it’s watermelon seeds from her mother, and so there’s so much care and intention put into growing that watermelon that I think just cutting up half a watermelon seems maybe careless to her or not giving it enough attention or respect,” she added. 

“I learned [to] respect the watermelon and respect the time it took to grow something and pick something and harvest it and package it. All of this, it’s so much work,” Atkins said.

The rural gardener is resourceful, explaining tricks she uses to deter pests and using tape to fix virtually anything from broken buckets to leaking windows. Although she is Atkins’s aunt, she is unmistakably grandmotherly, giving her niece saskatoon berries and leaving her voicemails to check up on her.

Bock’s life was not always easy. Born during the Great Depression, Atkins described her as thick skinned, resilient and unstoppable. She experienced the deaths of her sisters, naming each one in the film and describing how their passings have affected her growing up. 

“I did talk to her about it in advance to make sure she would be comfortable discussing these things on camera, but it wasn’t hard for her to share. She is the monologue queen,” Atkins commented.  

“She takes on a lot of responsibility in the family, being the oldest sister, and then having gone through these early deaths. Back then, the deaths were part of your domestic life […] The family is the one caring for the body, and so she would have had these early life experiences dealing with lost sisters.”

Agatha’s Almanac is screening in seven countries, winning the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs last year, but the now 92-year-old is unbothered and has been living the analogue life since long before it became a Gen Z trend. 

“It doesn’t affect her. It’s sort of outside of her world, all of what’s happening, because she’s not on a phone. She’s not online,” Atkins said.

“What’s important to her is her life in the moment […] Her friends and her family, those are the things that are really important to her […] It could be the wildest thing happening, but it would not faze her.”

When asked about what Atkins hoped viewers will take away from the film, she responded, “I hope they run out and get some seeds and plant something, whether it’s a little garden or a huge garden […] and then also talk to their elders, talk to their grandparents […] or any older person if you don’t have a grandparent, like older neighbors.”

Agatha’s Almanac is being screened at Dave Barber Cinematheque until April 15. For more information on the project, visit @agathasalmanac on Instagram.