A new documentary called ROOTED will profile Fresh Future Farm’s Germaine Jenkins — but first, producers must raise the funds to complete a first cut for submission to film festivals by September 2021, director Bridget Besaw and producer Adetoro Makinde told the City Paper.
A Kickstarter campaign has just raised over $31,000 of the $50,000 goal as of Tuesday morning, with the campaign ending on March 31.
“The Kickstarter campaign is supporting us to a rough cut,” Makinde said. “Our stretch goals support the additional elements needed to make a final polished film.”
According to the documentary’s outline, “While Germaine’s battle for Fresh Future Farm sets the stage for the film, at its core, ROOTED is the evolution of a leader.”
“(Viewers) can expect to learn about food justice and food apartheid — the definition of those two terms,” Besaw said. “You need to understand where we come from in order to understand where we’re headed, so they’ll learn a little bit about the history of Black farming and food justice in this country — or lack of food justice in this country. All of this they learn through what we call a profile of Germaine.”
Backers of the project will be eligible to receive rewards for their donations, including a copy of Germaine Jenkins’ book, Cookin’ Jones, and a digital download of ROOTED upon its release.
“Just imagine how many people can take control of food justice for them and their families by watching this documentary,” Jenkins said. “My hope is that we can demystify what liberation looks like … Through the documentary, folks can see it in real time, which is super exciting.”
For more information, visit the ROOTED’s Kickstarter page.
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