This October, let’s celebrate all types of Monadnock Region artists: crafters, painters, musicians, actors, writers, and other makers and creatives. We invite you to embrace local art during Choose Indie Art Month hosted by the American Independent Business Alliance.

We’ll highlight all the positive impacts artists have on you, our community, and our local economy. 

To start, we’ll shine the spotlight on Monadnock International Film Festival (MONIFF), an organization that connects us to the power of one specific type of art: film. MONIFF, a nonprofit organization, celebrates the diversity of our world through independent films that educate, enrich, and engage audiences through its annual film festival, happening October 2 – 4 in Keene and October 6 – 15 virtually. Throughout the year, MONIFF works with community partners to provide free community screenings showcasing high-quality, independent cinema.

“Film has always been part of my life,” said Deirdre Fitzgerald, MONIFF board chair, festival programmer, and film-lover. “From a young age, I remember going to the theatre with my family to watch everything from independent films like Cinema Paradiso and classics such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window to blockbusters like Star Wars. Movies reflect our very human hopes, dreams, and challenges; they also offer the chance to escape into another world. Being a part of the Monadnock International Film Festival is a dream come true. I get to see films from all genres and countries, then bring them to the community and watch beautiful connections being made between filmmakers and their audience.”

The Power of Film

Watching a film as a community can be a powerful shared experience. The stories pull us in, build empathy, connect us, and inspire collective action.

I think back to my time as Monadnock Food Co-op’s marketing manager, as we planned to launch our Healthy Food for All program in 2013 to boost access to local and organic food by offering a 10% discount to eligible community members. 

At first, some staff members expressed strong concerns about the program, fearing people would take advantage of it. To better understand why we wanted to create this program and the impact we hoped to make, we hosted a community viewing of the film, A Place at the Table. The film transformed statistics into something palpable.

“50 million Americans—1 in 4 children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” said film reviewers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. “A Place at the Table tells the powerful stories of three such Americans, who maintain their dignity even as they struggle just to eat. In a riveting journey that will change forever how you think about the hungry, A Place at the Table shows how the issue could be solved forever, once the American public decides—as they have in the past—that ending hunger is in the best interests of us all.”

One staff member, who originally pushed back on the program, came up to me right after the film viewing, visibly moved, and shared their wholehearted support for our Healthy Food for All launch. They even added that the program wasn’t enough, and that we needed to do even more to address hunger in our community.

“The Monadnock Food Co-op was open for less than a year when they launched their Healthy Food for All needs-based discount program,” said Bonnie Hudspeth, a film screening collaborator and former Co-op project manager. “As a new co-op, they realized the program would be an effective response to member concerns about affordability. As part of the program's launch, the Co-op hosted a screening and community discussion of the documentary A Place at the Table, linking their effort to the wider anti-hunger movement and encouraging other food co-ops to do the same. As a result, over a dozen co-ops held joint screenings and community dialogues across New England.”

From A Place at the Table to A Fork in the Road

Now here’s a new opportunity to get transported by film, build connections, and feel inspired to act collectively, again around food. MONIFF will screen the New Hampshire premiere of the film A Fork in the Road on Saturday, October 3 at 7 pm at Showroom in Keene. The evening also includes a filmmaker Q&A.

MONIFF will present the film’s co-directors, Jonathan Nastasti and Vivian Sorenson, with the 2026 Jonathan Daniels Award. “The highlight of our festival is the Jonathan Daniels Awards ceremony,” said Deirdre. “Honoring Keene's Civil Rights hero and presented to a filmmaker whose film combines artistic excellence with awareness of a timely social issue.”

Over eight years, A Fork in the Road follows farmers, chefs, and innovators as they work tirelessly to transition how we grow food and build a regenerative food system. Mary Berry, a central figure of the film and daughter of writer and agricultural activist Wendell Berry, shares her work at The Berry Center, advocating for farmers, land-conserving communities, and healthy regional economies. Actor Nick Offerman, a familiar voice, narrates the film.

"I wanted to tell the story of farmers who are adapting to change and figuring out how to grow our food," said co-director and executive producer Vivian Sorenson. "And I began to understand that we all have this deep connection to agriculture. You just know it when you put your hands in soil. Something starts to change inside you."

Purchase your ticket or a full MONIFF pass and check out the full film schedule.

Stay tuned for more Choose Indie Arts news, events, and inspiration throughout October at tlcmonadnock.com/art. 

Choose Indie Art Month is part of a larger Choose Indie Local movement that we celebrate year-round.  Together, we inspire our communities to take positive action and boost the ripple effects our neighborhoods, towns, and cities receive when we spend and invest more of our dollars at locally owned, independent businesses. JOIN US!