Tierralismo: Stories from a Cooperative Farm 2012
Distributed by Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Producciones Canek
Directed by Alejandro Ramírez Anderson
DVD, color, 52 min.
Sr. High - General Adult
Agriculture, Cooperative Agriculture, Cuba
Date Entered: 09/18/2014
Reviewed by Buzz Haughton, Adjunct Faculty, School of Library and Information Studies, University of AlabamaThis DVD consists of interviews with eighteen workers at a cooperative farm in Cuba. The dialogue is in Spanish, with English subtitles if the viewer desires. The term used in the film for this type of agriculture is “organipónico”: methods are organic, avoiding chemical pesticides and using biological pest control. There is a variety of crops raised, and most of the persons interviewed appear to have entered their fields from others for which they originally trained.
What is remarkable about this film is the glimpse of a facet of food production in a country with a long and contentious history vis-à-vis the U.S. A couple of those interviewed mention that their salaries as cooperative farmers and agronomists are more or less comparable with those of doctors in Cuba! While overwhelmingly positive in its views on the state of Cuban organipónica, there is mention of problems, e.g. corruption.
For senior high school to undergraduate students interested in agriculture.