GAINING GROUND
A Documentary Film by Elaine Velazquez & Barbara Bernstein
WATCH THE TRAILER
GAINING GROUND is a documentary about growing food, empowering communities and changing lives. The film interweaves three stories.
Activists living in the shadow of the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, California, struggle to transform corners of Richmond, California’s inner city food desert into vibrant community gardens and opportunities for growth
A family on the verge of losing their dairy farm in rural Oregon, finds a new direction growing produce for their local community
The determined wife of the largest grass seed farmer in the Willamette Valley, convinces her husband to grow organic grains.
The film personalizes class, gender, race and environmental justice issues by rooting them within narratives of compelling characters.
“To have Chevron stand in your face and treat you like things to be put in a cost-benefit analysis. Our corporate right to make profit supersedes your right to live a healthy, happy life, to pull yourself out of poverty.”
Doria Robinson, Executive Director, Urban Tilth
“We have certain areas in the world that are relatively GMO free and the Willamette Valley happens to be one of them. That means a lot to our customers. Now you have some of the largest seed companies in the world doing their best to destroy our market, by introducing GMO crops in our producing area. I just wish they’d leave us the hell alone.”
Harry Stalford, Stalford Seed Farms/Green Willow Grains
GAINING GROUND explores the devastating effects of the 2012 Chevron Richmond refinery fire on Urban Tilth and impacts of the 2013 discovery of GMO wheat in Eastern Oregon on the farmers in Oregon. While GAINING GROUND is sober about the obstacles to creating change, it points the way toward hope.
Please support the distribution of GAINING GROUND by clicking on the donate button above to help us get this film out as widely as possible. All donations are tax deductible.
GAINING GROUND is now available on DVD. Individual sales are for personal use only – to be shared with friends and neighbors but not for public screenings. The educational rate for K-12 is for sales to single schools. School districts interested in purchasing the film should contact us at mediapro1@comcast.net.
“Gaining Ground is a warm and wonderful film that journeys into the future of food and agriculture. Hopeful, critical, poetic.”
Bill Bigelow, Curriculum Editor, Rethinking Schools
“I recommend this excellent teaching tool for anthropology, ethnic studies, small farms, and food justice programs in high school through graduate level university courses. Offering rich and authentic insights into the challenges, opportunities, and journeys of farmers and community activists growing food as a vehicle for creating social change, the film offers an in-depth examination of important issues and captures viewers’ attention.”
Eric T. Jones, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor – Anthropology, Oregon State University
“I loved this film – how it rooted big issues within the narratives of such compelling individual personalities.”
David Naimon, host of Healthwatch and Between the Covers, KBOO-FM
