Trailer for documentary shorts series Land & Freedom: Talking Food Systems.
How can the humanities inform and impact public health? That was the inquiry to develop this interactive documentary and digital storytelling project that connected grassroots organizing efforts with public health officials and private healthcare providers.
The project documents the growth of urban agriculture and local food systems in several underserved San Diego neighborhoods, including some populated by refugees. This interactive social documentary project examines how communities develop creative responses to the issues of hunger, limited access to healthy food, underemployment, and urban blight.
Short visual stories narrated by urban gardeners and farmers’ market advocates are available to stream online on a resource webpage, while a story map is accessible by mobile devices that scan QR codes posted on plaques outside landmark urban agriculture sites where the stories occur and compose a walking tour to encourage exercise while engaging an audience in social concerns.
Public screenings of the shorts series were first coordinated around San Diego County at cinemas, gardens, and community centers. Later the project presented on a screening tour of East Coast and Midwest cities and exhibited at the San Diego Latino Film Festival and the San Diego Awards Festival presented by Film Consortium San Diego.
