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In the shadow of a high-rise apartment building, three blocks from a Metro station, in one of the most heavily-trafficked regions in the country, sits Koiner Farm.

An acre plot behind a home the Koiner family has owned at 737 Easley St. in Silver Spring since 1932, it is believed to be the only county farmland south of the Beltway. It's there that 89-year-old Charlie Koiner raises his lettuce, tomatoes, onions, radishes and about 20 other types of produce. It's also there that, every Saturday, he awakes at 4:30 a.m., picks the day's freshest crops, loads his pickup and, with his daughter Lynn, drives one-third of a mile to the Silver Spring farmers' market.

"The people really enjoy fresh stuff — you just can't beat it," said Koiner, describing in a single sentence why he's embraced his life's work. Charlie Koiner has decided to remain a small-town farmer amid the hustle and bustle of what is now an urban, emerging metropolis.

On Tuesday, the small-town farmer will be thrust into the city spotlight. "The Corner Plot," a short film about Koiner Farm by two young Washington, D.C., filmmakers, will be aired for free outdoors at Silver Plaza on Ellsworth Drive.

"I can't imagine what it will look like to see myself on the big screen or Charlie on the big screen," said Lynn Koiner, who, along with her father, will walk to the screening with their neighbors.

They will join an audience from around the world attending the eighth-annual Silverdocs Documentary Festival, which begins Monday and runs through June 27 at the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre and Discovery Communications. Of 102 films submitted to Silverdocs, "The Corner Plot" is the only film to feature subjects from Silver Spring.

"Silverdocs is really, for people like us, the holy grail of documentary filmmaking competitions," said Andre Dahlman, 29, who co-directed the film with Ian Cook. "We kind of stacked the deck in our favor, because Charlie's story is an interesting one, and it's really local."

Dahlman met the Koiners through his interest in local produce and frequenting the farmers' market. Soon after, Cook and Dahlman began making regular visits to Koiner Farm, where passersby walk up to the backyard, point at produce they like and buy it from Charlie or Lynn.

"It quickly became apparent there was more to the story than just vegetables," said Dahlman, who, like Cook, works for a commercial production company in D.C.

Cook and Dahlman approached the Koiners about plans for a documentary late last summer and ended up scrambling to complete the film before the deadline for Silverdocs submissions in March. To do so, Charlie Koiner braved February's "Snowpocalypse" to travel to a D.C. film studio for final interviews.

At a scant 10 minutes, the film provides an up-close view of Charlie Koiner's daily routine, from the pre-dawn tasks of finding ripe fruit and vegetables to selling those items at the farmers market the same day to accommodating the customers who stop by on their way home from work.

Charlie Koiner admits that in recent years the demand for his produce has peaked. With the recent fad in locally grown food — sold at places like Whole Foods, just a few blocks away on Wayne Avenue — Koiner Farm occupies a fascinating place within American agriculture, Dahlman and Cook said.

"At the time [Charlie Koiner bought the land in 1979], local produce wasn't a big issue," Cook said. "But Charlie has stayed on the same path, and the times have caught up with Charlie."

Just feet from the Koiners' farm, cars whiz through Easley Street as a cut-through to beat the area's indomitable traffic, evidence of the redevelopment that has transformed Silver Spring in the 30 years since Charlie Koiner has been farming there.

"When I was a kid, [Montgomery County] was all country, and my grandfather used to hook up a horse and wagon and a car would pass in now and then," Charlie Koiner, a lifelong county resident, says in the film. "And now I can't get across the road."

Real estate agents calling with interest in the land quickly learned it was not for sale, nor would it ever be, Lynn Koiner said.

"I said, ‘We are going to farm it,'" Lynn remembered. "And you could hear the air get sucked out of the room. ‘Farming?' They couldn't believe their ears, and that's exactly what we do."

In the fliers and promotional cards given to movie-goers when they see the film during Silverdocs, Dahlman and Cook hope to include a map directing viewers to Koiner Farm so they can walk over and pick up their own fresh produce.

Charlie Koiner appreciates the gesture and is effusive in his praise for Dahlman and Cook's documentary, which he hopes will help their career. He doesn't expect the film to change much for him, and, as one might expect, he's just fine with that.

"As long as I'm able, I just figure I better keep on going," Charlie Koiner said. "Once you quit, you are never going to start up again, that's for sure."

"The Corner Plot" will screen at the Silverdocs Documentary Festival three times. The first, at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday outside at Silver Plaza on Ellsworth Drive in Silver Spring, is free and will precede a screening of the feature-length film "Microcosmos."

The film also will screen 9 p.m. June 25 and 11:15 a.m. June 26 at the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre at 8633 Colesville Road as part of a 77-minute session with six other short films. For more information on "The Corner Plot," including a trailer for the movie, visit www.cornerplotmovie.com.

For daily coverage of Silverdocs, including film previews and trailers, filmmaker interviews, all the goings-on of the annual festival and a video interview with Charlie Koiner, visit www.gazette.net beginning Monday, the first day of the festival, and running through the last day on June 27.