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Uplifting documentary challenges preconceptions
Tortuga Films, a local Quebec independent film company, recently released a poignant and charming film that features the stories of three children living in farming cooperatives in Central America. "Campesinos...la terre nous va rester" (we will inherit the earth) has gotten much attention in Quebec, entering a number of film festivals and won a couple of local awards in filmmaking. The film was featured in the Quebec film festival in February by the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal and was sold out within minutes of the ticket booth's opening.
Photos courtesy of Tortuga Films
The title – Campesinos…we will inherit the earth – summarizes the film itself: despite the many challenges, trials, and hardships inherent to a livelihood built on and sustained by farming, these wise words of Duli – one of the film’s protagonists – claim a deep responsibility for the earth that provides and preserves the lives of the farmers…and of the rest of the us as well. For communities like Duli’s, the livelihood of each man, woman, and child depends directly on the success of the cultivation of the land. Director Adam Pajot Gendron portrays this reality from the perspective of three charming and precocious children: Duli, Yenier, and Paul. ‘Our children are our wealth ’, says Duli’s father in Guatemala. Gendron harnesses the value farming communities place in their children and defies the common (mis)conception that “fair” farming practices necessarily exclude the work of children in their families’ fields. An uplifting and unique perspective on farming cooperatives, Gendron’s delightful film encourages its viewer to reevaluate our traditional (and oftentimes misinformed) impressions of the practices of thousands of campesinos in cooperatives all over the world.
The film follows three children in Central America: Yenier picks coffee cherries in Nicaragua; Duli harvests macadamia nuts in Guatemala; and Paul selects cocoa beans in Costa Rica. The children live and work in farming cooperatives that greatly value and respect the environment in which they work, the product that they cultivate, and the people (and children) who work the land. Each of the three children frequently mention the principles by which their communities stand and proudly attest their own participation in fomenting these values. Education is a clear example of a value that each community upholds. All three kids describe their daily schedules which include a period of work in the fields allowing them to participate in their families’ livelihoods as well as going to school with their peers. For Paul, the walk to school is long and strenuous but in no way going to prevent him from earning his education.
Duli, Yenier and Paul each belong to families that help make up a farming cooperative that serves to improve the lives of the coop members. In the case of Duli’s community, we see how the cooperative model has empowered its members and affected drastic changes from the time when they served a rich and abusive boss who owned their land and refused to pay them fairly…or at all as was the case for 18 months until the community organized itself into a cooperative and took over the farm. Director Gendron underscores the inarguably positive effects of the cooperative model – effects that Cooperative Coffees has witnessed from the beginning – but fails to also include some of the challenges of such a model. No model is perfect, that’s for sure; clearly Campesinos… was most interested in highlighting the ideal examples of a farming cooperative. Gendron is strongly asserting (and certainly, Coop Coffees would agree in most casesl) that the cooperative serves the interests of the farmer, trying to improve the standard of living and guarantee a sustainable future for the community’s children.
Duli, Yenier, Paul and their friends, classmates, and peers are the ambassadors of their communities’ way of life, representing the future of their people and their land. The film shows how astutely aware the children are of this reality and responsibility. They take their work in the fields and their education at school very seriously: Yenier hopes to grow up to be a strong and able farmer like his father; Duli dreams of becoming a teacher or doctor. They each know what they have to do to continue their communities’ development. Gendron also addresses his own responsibility – that of the consumer – during the narration 
of the film. After filming these communities and personalities, he explains that the coffee, nuts, and chocolate he consumes will forever be associated with the hard work and earnest determination of the children he encountered. Likewise, those of us who watch the film are given a brief peek into the world of these adorable and admirable kids, which will undoubtedly awaken our conscience and allow us to better understand their way of life. It challenges how we understand the communities in which children’s work in the field is a common and normal part of life – the kids are proud to support their families, as proud as they are to attend school. These three cases offer a beautiful example of the all-too-often unpublished positive perspective of farming families all over the world. As Coop Coffees’ manager of producer relations Monika Firl mentions in an interview during the film, these cooperatives have the power to “change the face of poverty” and Campesinos…we will inherit the earth does a fantastic job of showing this uplifting side of agriculture.
