TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity will host its seventh annual virtual Food Justice Film Festival Oct. 22 to Oct. 25, featuring four award-winning films and interviews with filmmakers, farmers, organizers and activists.
This year’s featured films are Seeds of Sovereignty; Seeding Change: Farming Beyond Neonics; Toxic Harvest: The Hidden Truth About Pesticides; and Seed Is Life. The online festival is free and open to the public.
“We’re seeing unprecedented attacks on our food system and on food systems around the world,” said Linda Rico, the Center’s film festival coordinator. “This festival gives filmmakers, activists, organizers and food and farmworkers a platform to elevate these issues and showcase how they’re continuing to fight for a more sustainable food system.”
What: Food Justice Film Festival.
When: Oct. 22 to Oct. 25. If you’re new to the festival, sign up here. Returning participants can log in with their password here.
Where: FoodJusticeFilmFestival.com
Who: In addition to the films, the festival also features virtual interviews with filmmakers, farmers, activists and organizers. They include Stuart Tanner, director of Seeds of Sovereignty; Deidre May, director of Seed Is Life; Mariam Mayet, executive director of programs at the African Center for Biodiversity, who is featured in the film Seed Is Life; Ben Willis, director of Seeding Change; and Samantha Alger, PhD., scientific advisor at One Hive Foundation.
The prerecorded interviews will be available to watch before, during and after the festival.
Seeds of Sovereignty — This story is told through the eyes of Native Mexican milpa farmers practicing centuries-old Indigenous farming techniques, local activists fighting for food sovereignty, and those who work and organize to keep Mexico’s cultural heritage thriving. We see Mexico’s fight to protect its corn seed, biodiversity, traditional agriculture and environmental health from the U.S. push to make the country use GMO-treated seeds and industrial farming practices. Directed by Stuart Tanner.
Seeding Change: Farming Beyond Neonics — This film chronicles the challenges, successes and ongoing work of local farmers and researchers from Quebec farms to Cornell University field trials as they navigate the transition of managing crop pests without neonicotinoid-treated seeds. These seeds are coated in powerful nerve-agent pesticides so that, when they become plants, they’re toxic to insects from root to tip. Seeding Change explores what a future without insecticide-treated seeds would look like in the northeastern United States. Directed by Ben Willis.
Toxic Harvest: The Hidden Truth About Pesticides — Toxic Harvest follows experts and smallholder farmers on the front lines of devastating agricultural pesticide exposure in South Africa and their courageous fight against an unjust system. It spotlights the need for urgent action to shift away from harmful toxins and toward agroecological farming. Directed by Andréa Gema.
Seed Is Life — This film covers how communities in South Africa and Zimbabwe are fighting to protect their cultural heritage and reclaim the rights to their native seeds against corporations trying to criminalize seed saving and sharing between local farmers. Directed by Deidre May.
For more information, trailers and interviews visit FoodJusticeFilmFestival.com.
