Glimpse into Harvest through film

The documentary film 'Harvest' follows an all-woman picking crew druing the 2011 wine grape harvest in Sonoma County. (Photo by Charlie Gesell.)

Last year’s Wine Country grape harvest, dubbed the worst ever by some local winemakers, was plagued by untimely rainstorms and widespread grape rot.

The stressful harvest season offered the opportunity for a rare glimpse inside the wine industry in “Harvest,” a documentary film directed by John Beck and released for distribution by 7th Art Releasing earlier this year.

The 70-minute film follows five Sonoma County family wineries, an all-woman grape picking crew from Mexico and an amateur home winemaker through the 2011 harvest season.

“When I stumbled onto this all-female wine grape picking crew, they became the heart and soul of the film. You see women in the vineyards, but it’s very rare that you’ll see 12 women together as a unit,” Beck said.

“When three of them opened up to me, invited me into their homes and told me their border-crossing stories, I just couldn’t stop. One of them was robbed before she crossed the border by thieves in the mountains. These women are documented workers now they’re here.”