Farming While Black

In 1910, Black farmers owned fourteen percent of all American farmland. Over the intervening decades, that number fell to two percent, the result of racism, discrimination, and dispossession. Director Mark Decena adapts Leah Penniman’s 2018 book into a visually eloquent documentary that chronicles Penniman and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. Collectively, their work has a major impact, as each is a leader in sustainable agriculture and food justice movements. Decena outlines their contributions to regenerative agricultural practices, his watchful camera following the trio as they grow food, build community, advocate for themselves, repair the wounds of the past, and create a prosperous future. A rich guide to a world of activists, storytellers, healers, and changemakers, Farming While Black manifests alternate visions of humanity’s relationship to the land.