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GAINING GROUND
A Documentary by Elaine Velazquez & Barbara Bernstein

Watch the Trailer

GAINING GROUND is a documentary about growing food as a vehicle to empower communities and change lives. The film shows the connection between family farmers rejecting big ag and urban activists defying the control of big oil in their community.

GAINING GROUND interweaves three stories that demonstrate what compels people to make ethical choices that serve their communities and better the planet.

♦ 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.

 

GAINING GROUND explores the devastating effects of the 2012 Chevron Richmond refinery fire on an urban farm in Richmond and the impacts of the discovery of GMO wheat in Eastern Oregon on the farmers in Oregon. While the film 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 for individual and academic use.

Payment Options

“While there are many documentaries about farmers struggling against all odds to grow sustainable GMO-free, pesticide-free produce and grains for their own communities, few truly show the sweep of organic farming in various rural and urban situations, or make a case for sustainable farming as a class/racial/educational issue with transformative potential. Showcasing the experiences of Richmond, CA’s Urban Tilth farm (created by activists who were sick of the diabetes-baiting poor food options in their neighborhood), interwoven with scenes from a one-time dairy farm outside Portland, OR, and a grass seed farm in Oregon, filmmakers Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein’s Gaining Ground looks at common problems, ranging from a lack of knowledge about how to grow organic food, to the outrageous issue of GMO seeds used in industrial farming contaminating neighboring organic farms (which not only harms organic farmers, but they can find themselves sued by seed companies for royalties), to the specter of environmental catastrophe, such as the 2012 Chevron Richmond refinery fire that chemically altered Urban Tilth crops. In addition, organic farmers face a variety of social justice issues related to the simple but apparently commercially threatening impulse to feed humans nutritious food. A powerful documentary on a timely topic, this is highly recommended.”
Video Librarian

“Gaining Ground is a warm and wonderful film that journeys into the future of food and agriculture. We meet the young people who power the Richmond, California, urban agriculture project Urban Tilth. And we visit Oregon farmers who only reluctantly embraced organic agriculture, farmers markets, and community-supported agriculture (CSA) projects. Late in the film, we see how precarious alternatives can be: The Urban Tilth gardens are invaded by a toxic cloud from a fire at the nearby Chevron refinery and farmers in Oregon battle Monsanto’s GMO pollution. One of the biggest silences in the school curriculum is the growing struggle over food and agriculture. This is the kind of media we need as we help students—and ourselves—imagine local, organic food systems and a future free of fossil fuels. Hopeful, critical and poetic, Gaining Ground is rich with teaching possibilities — from middle school through university.”
Bill Bigelow, Curriculum Editor, Rethinking Schools

“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. I recommend this excellent teaching tool for anthropology, ethnic studies, small farms, and food justice programs in high school through graduate level university courses.”
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

MEET THE PEOPLE IN GAINING GROUND

  • Urban Tilth Greenway Garden
  • Doria
  • tania
  • jamie-elaine-doria
  • doria-SAP-celebration
  • UT Guys Greenway bright sharpen
  • Urban Tilth Greenway Garden
  • Sun Gold Farm CSA hayride
  • Sun Gold Farm harvesting pumpkins
  • Sun Gold Farm harvesting strawberries
  • Stalford Seed Farms windmill
  • Stalford Seed Farms Blue moon
  • SF Harry & Willow in field
  • B&E-shooting-Tangent
  • Harry in field

THANKS TO OUR FUNDERS

SCREENINGS

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND
Rausch Auditorium
Tacoma, Washington  2019

NORTH OLYMPIC PENINSULA FARMING FILM FEST
Port Hadlock, Washington   2018

2017 FOOD & FARM FILM FEST
ROXIE THEATER
San Francisco, CA

WORKERS UNITE FILM FESTIVAL
CINEMA VILLAGE
New York, NY

CLARK UNIVERSITY
121 Sackler Hall
Worcester, Massachusetts  2017

NORTHWEST FILM CENTER
Northwest Tracking Series
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM

Portland, OR    2017

SALEM PROGRESSIVE FILM SERIES
GRAND THEATER

Salem, OR   2017

FIFTH AVENUE CINEMA
Portland, OR   2017

EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY
La Grande, OR   2017

VANCOUVER COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Vancouver, WA   2017

CASCADE PARK COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Vancouver, WA   2107

HOLLYWOOD THEATER
Portland, OR   2016

SKYLIGHT THEATER
Hood River, OR
   2016

BIJOU ART THEATER
Eugene, OR   2016  

COLUMBIAN THEATER
Astoria, OR   2016

VARSITY THEATER
Ashland, OR   2016

SANDY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Sandy, OR   2016

CISCFF-Wreath-2016 small

SLO Film Fest Laurels 2016

CINEMA 21
Portland, Oregon 2015

CORVALLIS ECO FILM FESTIVAL   2015

 

WE HAVE COLLABORATED WITH THE FOLLOWING COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS:

KBOO-FM
Multnomah County Office of Sustainability
Oregon Food Bank
Columbia Riverkeeper
Food Front
Food & Water Watch
Friends of Family Farmers
Village Gardens
Rethinking Schools
Food for Lane County
University of Oregon Food Studies Program
North Coast Food Web
Astoria Food Co-op
CREATE
Coast Community Radio, Astoria
CCA Regional Food Bank
Rockford Grange, Hood River
Gorge Grown Food Network
Andrew’s Pizza
Our Family Farm Coalition
Rogue Valley Food System Network
Thrive
Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families
GMO Free Josephine County
Rogue Valley Farm to School.


 MEDIA APPEARANCES
Read an interview with GAINING GROUND director Elaine Velazquez and producer Barbara  Bernstein in Civil Eats.
 
CLICK to Hear an interview with GAINING GROUND filmmakers Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein on The Jefferson Exchange, Jefferson Public Radio, October 25, 2016
 
CLICK to Hear an interview with GAINING GROUND filmmakers Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein on Healthwatch, KBOO-FM September 21, 2015
 
CLICK  to Watch an interview with GAINING GROUND filmmakers Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein on KPTV, Channel 12 September 29, 2015


©2015       The Media Project       P.O. Box 82777       Portland, OR 97282-0777       503-235-2623         mediapro1@comcast.net