Hardest hit: Survival strategies from the frontlines of climate change

Hardest hit: Survival strategies from the frontlines of climate change



Viewer (optional): Brian Rawson

How to view: Request a free DVD from Oxfam America (while supplies last)

Or click here for the films online:

Global Crisis (10 minutes) - overview of climate change effects on people


US Gulf Coast (6 minutes) - Hurricane Katrina and building back stronger


El Salvador (6 minutes) - Safer source of drinking water to endure hurricanes



Ethiopia (6 minutes) - Innovative early warning system based on interviewing women in the community


Vietnam (6 minutes) - Farming families adapting to climate change


Director: Alan Grazioso.  Narrated by Majora Carter 

Produced in the US.  Countries featured: Ethiopia, El Salvador, Vietnam, US (Gulf Coast)

Run Time: 34 minutes to show all segments

Language: English

Year: 2009

Synopsis: 

Recommendation:  This is an excellent choice for events focused on climate resilience.

Earth to Mouth

Earth to Mouth

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/earth_to_mouth

Director: | Producer: Yung Chang 

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: 41 mins | Language: English Subtitles

Synopsis: Filmed at the Wing Fong Farm in Ontario, this documentary follows the tilling, planting and harvesting of Asian vegetables destined for Chinese markets and restaurants. On 80 acres of land, Lau King-Fai, her son and a half-dozen migrant Mexican workers care for the plants. For Yeung Kwan, her son, the farm represents personal and financial independence. For his mother, it is an oasis of peace. For the Mexican workers, it provides jobs that help support their children back home.

Opinion: 

Recommendation:

Ladies of the Land

Ladies of the Land 

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/ladies_of_the_land

Director: | Producer: Megan Thompson 

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: 29 mins | Language: English 

Synopsis: As small, family farms continue to disappear, and large, mechanized farms dominate American agriculture, a new kind of farmer is sprouting up across the land: women. Although women have always been involved in farming, it has long been thought of as a "man's job." Traditionally, farm women have often identified themselves as something other than the "farmer." That's all changing. According to the USDA, between 2002 and 2007, the number of women who identified themselves as farmers increased by 19 percent, and the number of women "principal operators" increased by 30 percent.

Today, there are about one million women farmers in the U.S. - 30 percent of the total. Women are a fast-growing demographic in American agriculture, and they are doing things differently. While the average farm size in the U.S. has grown dramatically over the last 50 years, women tend to run smaller operations. Many choose organic and natural methods.

Opinion: 

Recommendation:

The Last Farm in Lowell

The Last Farm in Lowell 

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_last_farm_in_lowell

Director: | Producer: Andrew Szava-Kovats

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: 1 hour | Language: English 

Synopsis: Director Andrew Szava-Kovats presents a portrait of Rollie's Farm in Lowell, Massachusetts, where the Parron family has been growing fresh produce and more for over 50 years. Family owned since 1953, Rollie's Farm has eschewed the corporate trend, and thanks to the supportive locals they've always managed to stay in business. But that's not to say that it's been all smooth sailing for the Parron's; a conversation with Rollie and his elderly parents reveal just how close they came to losing the farm due to taxation issues in the mid-1970s. 

As always, however, they managed to bounce back, and today their farm is the pride of the entire community

Opinion: 

Recommendation:

Farm to Table

Farm to Table

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/farm_to_table


Director: | Producer: The International Documentary Challenge is a timed filmmaking competition where filmmakers have 5 days to make a short non-fiction film

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: 5 min | Language: English  

Synopsis: The story of how far our economic world has been separated from the natural world.

Opinion: Respect and imitate Mother Nature, go back to the past

Very simple message in a very short film.

Recommendation:

Impact of the FTA with Colombian Small-Scale Framers

Impact of the FTA with Colombian Small-Scale Framers and Workers 

How to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ny3C3d-ToI 

Director: | Producer: Enlalucha Films, US Office on Colombia 

Produced | Country: Colombia  

Run Time: 6.41 minutes  | Language: Spanish (English subtitles) 

Synopsis:  Today, the U.S. Office on Colombia, along with more than 400 other organizations, academics, and individuals from the United States and Colombia, sent a letter to the U.S. Congress asking representatives to vote no on the pending U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement (FTA). The Labor Action Plan has not stopped new violence on trade unionists and labor activists from taking place, nor has it banned third party contracting that obstructs workers’ ability to unionize. 

Opinion: This powerful video voices the opinions of small-scale farmers, laborers and women of how rural areas in Colombia are being displaced. See how hegemonic countries affect the developing world. 

Common Ground: Urban Farmers Nourish their Communities

Common Ground: Urban Farmers Nourish their Communities 

How to view: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/multimedia/video/common-ground-urban-farmers-nourish-their-communities/

Director: | Producer: Oxfam America
Produced | Country: Global 
Run Time: 4.38 minutes | Language: English

Synopsis:Innovative small-scale urban farmers all over the world are helping to ensure access to local, healthy food. From Harriet's backyard plot in Kampaala, Uganda to Amanda's community farm in Waltham, Massachusetts, farmers share the desire to nourish the world. Oxfam is thankful for small-scale farmers whose work feeds billions of people around the world

Opinion:

Recommendation: Oxfam America 

Life, Land and Justice in Uganda

Life, Land and Justice in Uganda

How to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17QxF61PVC4

Director: | Producer: Friends of the Earth International 
Produced | Country: Kalangala, Uganda 
Run Time: 5.07minutes | Language: Central Sudanic (English subtitles)  

Synopsis: In Kalangala, Uganda, John Muyisa woke up one day to find bulldozers clearing his land to plant oil palms. John and his community have preserved their forests and lands for generations. Now their way of life is at risk. 

Opinion: Support John. In this video he has had the opportunity to share what happens to communities every single day, many who do not have a voice. 

Recommendation:

Land Grabs - Ethiopia

Land Grabs - Ethiopia

How to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeQFCBFYlwY

Director: | Producer: The Guardian Films   
Produced | Country: Ethiopia 
Run Time: 11.48minutes | Language: English 

Synopsis: Over the last three years an area the size of Britain has been handed over to corporations to make way for large-scale industrial farming in Ethiopia. With cheap rates and incentives, companies are pouring in to the exploit the land the government has cleared of its people. Many of the displaced are too scared to complain:"what power do we have to stop them? We just stay silent", says one farmer. Despite promises of a better life, many Ethiopians are being left within nothing. Ethiopian Farm Minister, Wondirad Mandefro, shrugs: "they have to abandon their previous way of life".

Opinion: In Ethiopia, one of the hungriest countries in the world, small farmers and communities are being moved off their land as international agribusinesses take over large swathes of fertile farmland.

Recommendation:

Life and Debt

Clip from Life and Debt

How to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzYGaFv1ryo

Director: | Producer: Stephanie Black
Produced: 2001 | Country: Jamaica 
Run Time: 4 minutes (full film 1hour26minutes) | Language: English 

Synopsis: Life and Debt is a woven tapestry of sequences focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival are determined by the US and other foreign economic agendas.    

Opinion: A great compilation of short clips that summarize well the full length documentary Life and Debt, that focus on the effects of the free trade and IMF policies.  

Recommendation:

Bajo Aguán: The Clamor for Land

Bajo Aguán: The Clamor for Land 

How to view: http://www.albasud.org/video/en/22/bajo-aguan-grito-por-la-tierra-english-version

Viewer: Zhenxi 

Director: | Producer: Alba sud and Rel-UITA with the support of the The World Rainforest Movement (WRM), Food First International, The Coordination of Popular Organizations of the Aguán (COPA), Radio Universidad (UCA Nicaragua) anb Comitè de Empresa de Serveis Funeraris de Barcelona
Produced | Country: Honduras

Run Time: 30 minutes  
Language: (Spanish with English subtitles)

Synopsis: a film about one of the most violent regions in Honduras since the 2009 coup, where the country’s largest and wealthiest landowner, Miguel Facussé, has used extreme levels of violence to re-press peasant communities in order to expand his massive oil palm plantations. Since the coup, over 80 Aguán peasants and activists fighting for the right to land been murdered.

Opinion:
The film documented the struggle people in Bajo Aguan are facing by letting the people speak for themselves. It starts with an introduction to the military regime and follows up with the reality of farmer's lives after the resettlement. 
The film highlighted the cruelty and injustice in the region through people's narration. Through the interviews with the local activists, survivors and government officials, we get a holistic idea of the impacts the violence has caused. 

Good with documentation, but no suggestive actions. See hope but mostly depressing.

 Recommendation:

Good for motivational purpose. It leaves a powerful impression. However, the documentary does not link Oxfam's campaigns as the solutions to the problem. 

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The Big Banana

How to view:  visit http://thebigbananamovie.com/home/ 

Director: | Producer:Franck Bieleu

Produced:  | Country: Cameroon

Run time:  85min
Language: French with English subtitles


Synopsis:  Food security suffers in the fertile farming area of Cameroon where banana plantations cultivate fruit for European markets.  Now the large multinational wants to own the residents' land too.
From the website:  The region of Njombe-Penja in the coast of Cameroon has a very fertile soil due to high volcanic property. Tropical fruit such as banana, pineapple or mango are widely cultivated for export toward the west, generating millions dollars profit to agro industrial companies. At first glance, a little paradise for the locals soon turns to nightmare.
With the new agreement APE (partnership agreement) between the ACP countries (Africa, Pacific, Caribbean) and Europe that allows free trade. Tropical fruit companies (The big Banana) are encouraged to increase their production to meet the western demand. Such an increase requires more land. Unavailable, the big banana begins expropriating farmers with the help of the local government, leaving land owner, and small farmers with nothing to fend for themselves and their families.

Opinion:

Recommendations:

La Via Campesina in Movement... Food Sovereignty Now!

La Via Campesina in Movement



Viewer: Zhenxi


How to view: http://vimeo.com/27473286; downloadable version available

Director: | Producer: La Via Campesina

Run Time: | Language: 20 min/ English

Synopsis: La Via Campesina is a social movement started in 1993 that advocates for small-scale farming and local consumption. This video shows the reality of the food production and the organization's effort in the movement.

Opinion: Not directly relevant to GROW campaign but good to learn about the movement.