Harvest Season

2019. 83 min. Quiet Pictures and Independent Lens.

Official selection at Big Sky, Full Frame Film Festival, Doc NYC, and many more. Winner, Best Documentary Cinematography, at Queens World Film Festival.

HARVEST SEASON delves into the lives of people who work behind the scenes of the premium California wine industry, during one of the most dramatic grape harvests in recent memory. The film follows the stories of Mexican-American winemakers and migrant workers who are essential to the wine business, yet are rarely recognized for their contributions. Their stories unfold as wildfires ignite in Napa and Sonoma counties, threatening the livelihoods of small farmers and winemakers who are already grappling with a growing labor shortage, shifting immigration policies, and the impacts of a rapidly changing climate.

“Told expertly and with some startlingly gorgeous photography, director Bernardo Ruiz gives a first hand account of small wine producers and the struggles they face both economically and politically in 2018 America... a film that’s as beautiful as it is intimate and emotionally moving.” - Criterion Cast

“Ruiz spent close to three years filming in Napa Valley, essentially embedding with his subjects; the only crew who sometimes accompanied him was his director of photography, Victor Tadashi-Suarez. The result is a film of striking intimacy and cinematic elegance that feels all too rare in a genre increasingly crowded with didactic, talking-head-driven storytelling.” - Rolling Stone

Read more about the film here.

HARVEST SEASON. USA, 2018, 83 min. In Spanish and English with English subtitles. Directed and produced by Bernardo Ruiz; Co-Producer: Lauren Capps; Associate producer: Andrea Cordoba; Production company: Quiet Pictures; Director of photography: Victor Tadashi Suarez; Additional cinematography: Spencer Chumbley, Antonio Cisneros, Clare Major, Jenni Morello, Claudio Rocha; Assistant camera: Ben Lunden, Mimi Wilcox; Editors: Fiona Otway, Lucas Smith; Assistant editors: Sergio Noriega, Rebeccah Pope; Sound recordists: Adriano Bravo, Jim Choi, Michael Martin; Composer: Alaskan Tapes with additional music by Hauschka; Still photography: Roberto “Bear” Guerra.