Bergauf, Bergab

The Kempf family—all three generations—are mountain farmers in a pastoral valley in central Switzerland. They live an anachronistic lifestyle, scything hay on steep slopes that would be considered double black diamonds in the ski world. The family moves up and down the mountain with the seasons and are close to the land and each other. And it’s not hard to see that their lives are richer for it. This film marries mountains and food in a sweet, intimate portrait of a family nurturing itself through the cultivation of food that sustains far more lives than just their own. —EL