Farming While Black

After years of working on films in the climate and environmental justice space I was hungry for a film that uplifted solutions, not only to the climate crisis, but also the social and environmental issues. A character from our previous film, Not Without Us, being a seed activist, planted the seed of an idea for our next film: the fact that small farmers grow 70% of the world’s food and regenerative practices use only a small amount of energy resources (compared to industrial agriculture). After hearing Leah Penniman on a podcast, I realized Soul Fire Farm and the Afro-Indigenous agricultural techniques that they employ would be the perfect nexus of the movement spaces we’ve documented in the past.

Farming While Black offers a historical look at Black farmers in the US and more importantly offers inspiration and hope for the rising generation Black farmers who are finding connection and purpose in changing the food system, contributing solutions to the climate crisis, and finding joy in reconnecting to land.