New Documentary ‘Heart of Glass’ Features Urban Farm That Hires People With Disabilities
“Hearts of Glass ” is a plunge into the tumultuous first 15 months of operation of Vertical Harvest (VH), a highly innovative experiment in growing crops and providing meaningful employment for people with disabilities.
Kimberly Zapata
The Mighty
July 15, 2020
(Must see. Mike)
Excerpt:
After nearly a year on the film festival circuit, “Heart of Glass” is headed to the silver screen. The disability-centric documentary will begin airing on more than 200 television stations later this month, and the broadcasts are slated to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26.
“Heart of Glass” follows the creation and story of Vertical Harvest — an urban farm in Jackson, Wyoming, that hires individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A state-of-art indoor vertical farm, Vertical Harvest not only can harvest fresh tomatoes all year round, they pay all their employees a competitive wage.
The film has been many years in the making. In 2019, director Jennifer Tennican told The Mighty developing a feature-length independent documentary was “a marathon, not a sprint” but she pushed on because the heart of the film was (and is) its people and their stories.
: Vertical Harvest isn’t the only organization that employs members of the disability community. These organizations can be critical because people with disabilities are significantly more likely to be unemployed compared to their typical counterparts.
