Fair Traders 2019
Distributed by epf media, 324 S. Beverly Drive, PMB 437, Beverly Hills, CA 90212; 310-839-1500
Produced by Franziska Reck
Directed by Nino Jacusso
Streaming, 89 mins
College - General Adult
Agriculture; Economics; Entrepreneurship, Ethics; Labor; Sustainable Living
Date Entered: 08/11/2022
Reviewed by Stephanie Conover, Cataloging Specialist, High Point Public LibraryThe meaning of life. Happiness vs. material success. Redistribution of risk. All of these concepts are explored in Fair Traders, a documentary focused on three people who decided to pursue business opportunities in industrial agriculture that are not exploitive or extractive.
This contemplative, subtitled film profiles the three business owners during interwoven segments that showcase the highs and lows of attempting to create sustainable businesses outside of capitalistic economic structures. All three entrepreneurs experienced a shift in their understanding of HOW a business could sustain not only themselves but sustain and improve communities at the same time.
Fair Traders follows each business owners’ unique journey toward sustainability, using interviews and footage featuring day-to-day inner workings of the businesses. Claudia Zimmermann left a teaching career to become an organic farmer and open a wholefood shop in Switzerland. Sina Trinkwalder switched from working in advertising to becoming a textile entrepreneur in Augsburg, Germany. Patrick Hohmann, a pioneer in the organic cotton industry, expanded his long-time vision to include cotton farmers in Tanzania and India.
Their journeys are fascinating, and the leap of faith it takes to try to operate outside capitalism requires tenacity. The film details the kinds of obstacles they encounter; capitalist financial systems are designed to maximize profit, so finding operating capital or getting bank loans is a struggle. Prioritizing jobs over profit makes it hard to find like-minded business partners. Goals such as permanent employment and inclusive hiring practices result in time-consuming management issues and time spent coming up with unorthodox solutions.
Outside the box thinking is at the core of Fair Traders; none of the three people profiled could have made such drastic changes in their lives if they clung to traditional ways of doing business. Digging deep and really thinking through the entire life cycle of their respective businesses enabled them to identify core issues that could be challenged and changed to better reflect their values.
Achieving a true global economy requires sourcing and producing regionally, which all three owners address in this film. The filmmakers succeed in capturing the successes and difficulties experienced along the path to shifting the dialogue about ‘success’ and how it is measured. Fair Traders is very clear-eyed about the realities of building something unique that benefits everyone, not just the owner or shareholders. At one point, Sina (who is attempting to achieve permanent employment at her textile business and is committed to hiring people who are difficult to hire for reasons such as they are experiencing homelessness, etc.) describes being contacted by other entrepreneurs who ask her, “We have a special case, can you hire them?” Sina scoffs and tells them, “YOU do it. I’m not a backup for your failed social commitment.”
The journeys described in Fair Traders all revolve around commitment: What does it mean for a business to be committed to sustainability? How can a business provide a living for an owner, but also provide value to the land and the people in a community? Is it possible to commit to employing people permanently, and if so, what does that look like? Partnerships equal trust. How do you build that trust within capitalist structures? Fair Traders does an excellent job of highlighting three people who are grappling with those questions and coming up with unique ways of working through them, ways that are beneficial to everyone, not just the business owner.
Awards: The Hof International Film Festival; The Solothurn Film Festival; International Film Festival Innsbruck; DOQUMENTA International Documentary Film Festival; DOLOMITALE Film Festival; Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary; Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival; Solidarity – Human Rights Film Festival; The Singapore Eco Film Festival; Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival, Germany
Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.