Educational Media Reviews Online

The majority of environmental documentaries that I’ve watched over the past several years all follow a similar pattern. 95% of their screen time focuses on the vast problems confronting the sustainability of modern life and 5% focuses on proposing solutions. Growing Change is remarkable in that it is very solution focused. That’s not to say that it shies away from the problems. It just eschews alarmism for a more reasoned discussion.

Using the food crisis of 2008 as a starting point, Simon Cunich’s film documents the changes that Venezuela initiated as a response. The film succinctly chronicles the issues that brought the country to a food crisis before moving into an understanding of how the country established better food security and food sovereignty by empowering local farming and food production and moving away from a reliance on multinational corporations and imports.

Unlike many environmental documentaries which focus on changes individuals make, Growing Change looks at both the micro and macro levels. Unlike many documentaries, the initiatives presented seem scalable. The film shows how efforts at both the personal level and at the governmental level can work toward a common goal.

Growing Change covers a lot of ground in 60 minutes. Even at that palatable length, it shows the complexity of the issues and introduces a range of interesting participants; authors, activists and farmers all have prominent screen time. Clean graphics and text help delineate the organizing topics. Growing Change is an accessible case study of one country’s attempt to resolve many of the short-sighted approaches to food distribution that is prevalent in other nations. Although their solution is not perfect, Venezuela’s approach is certainly worthy of deeper discussion.