As part of our commitment to exploring the intersections of research, agroecology, and storytelling, we host film screenings that delve into the challenges and possibilities within food systems and environmental sustainability. Through documentaries and short films, we highlight diverse perspectives on agroecological practices, traditional knowledge, and the socio-political dynamics shaping our relationship with the land.
Each screening is followed by engaging discussions with filmmakers, researchers, and practitioners, fostering a deeper understanding of the themes and encouraging dialogue on transformative solutions for sustainable food systems.
Screenings with arvae x LesComplices*
in 2024, we centered voices on Palestinian agricultural and food systems through curated texts and two collaborative events with the art off-space Les Complices*:
In April, we screened The Untold Revolution: Food Sovereignty in Palestine by Ameen Nayfeh, a documentary highlighting the Palestinian agricultural movement’s fight for food sovereignty and independence from Israeli occupiers and global corporations.
In May, Marwa Arsanios presented Who’s Afraid of Ideology? (Parts I, II, and IV), delving into themes of ownership, extraction, feminism, and resistance through the Kurdish autonomous women’s movement and land struggles.
Both events included reading sessions featuring decolonial feminist perspectives on agroecology from the arvae x SAE Greenhouse library, fostering meaningful discussions on grassroots resilience and transformation.
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Ernte Teilen
The documentary film “ERNTE TEILEN” tells the story of farmers who oppose the growth compulsion of our system and break out of the structures of conventional agriculture. Filmmaker and activist Philipp Petruch takes the film on a journey to three CSA initiatives in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. They are united by a clear goal: with the help of communities, they create a local supply cycle according to the values of ecology and the common good. With courage, a sense of community and a new relationship between consumer and producer, we can change agriculture. And a little bit the world.
The film was screened in october 2023 and followed by a talk about Community Supported Agriculture in the Zurich area. The event was taking place as part of the Days of Agroecology, co-organised by Ernärungsforum Zürich.
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La Veine Verte
In 2023 and 2024, we hosted screenings of the documentary La Veine Verte – Agroecology in West Africa. This powerful film showcases the inspiring work of the Food System Caravane, a 50-day road show and communication caravan that traveled across five West African countries. The caravan shared key messages from food security research partnership projects, fostering knowledge exchange on sustainable food systems, agroecology, agroforestry, organic agriculture, and gender equality.
Each screening was followed by a thought-provoking discussion with the film’s producers, Fernando Sousa and Sara Baga, offering deeper insights into the challenges and successes highlighted in the documentary.
Special thanks to Claudia Zingerli for initiating the project and to Michelle Grant for collaborating with The Great Full community to make these events possible.
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Seed stories
In 2023, the Greenhouse hosted the Geography Film Club, featuring screenings of two impactful documentaries followed by discussions with their directors. The first event showcased Into the Weeds by Jennifer Baichwal, while the second featured Seed Stories by Chitrangada Choudhury and Aniket Aga. These events were organized by Chitrangada Choudhury, Sara Blanco Ramirez, and Xavier Balaguer Rasillo from the University of Zürich’s Department of Geography.
In 2024, we hosted once again Seed Stories for the second consecutive year, followed by an engaging discussion with filmmaker Chitrangada Choudhury, Kenza Benabderrazik, and a highly interactive audience.
Seed Stories (42 min) delves into the conservation efforts of Dr. Debal Deb and his team in the Niyamgiri mountains of Odisha, India, where they safeguard over 1,000 endangered heirloom rice varieties. The film explores the tensions between traditional agroecological practices of Indigenous communities and the proliferation of genetically modified cotton seeds, raising critical questions about the sustainability of food systems and environmental stewardship. Through its compelling narrative, the documentary invites viewers to reflect on how shifts in farming and food production affect both ecosystems and local livelihoods.
Seed Stories (2024)
42 min | Odiya, Kui, English
Director & Cinematography: Chitrangada Choudhury
Associate Director: Aniket Aga
Editor: Ajay TG | Sound: Asheesh Pandya | Colourist: Srikanth Kabothu
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Desert Phosphate
On November 17, the screening of “Desert Phosfate” was followed by a discussion with the Film Director : Mohamed Sleiman.
The film weaves its way through the history of phosphate and explores the multi-layered narratives of sand particles, plants and human displacement. The film explores ways of telling about realities, metaphors and poetics in the desert. It sheds light on the connections between colonial practices, the traces of anthropocentric mineral extraction and the loss of indigenous ways of knowing and telling the world.
Sleiman Labat’s film consists of five chapters of different lengths and from different points of view, which do not follow a logical or chronological order, but instead connect and reconnect randomly at one point or another. This non-linear narrative style is the artist’s way of decolonizing his methods of storytelling. The contradictory nature of the chapters resembles the rhythm of the sandstorm: it builds up and collapses several times, then rages loudly again before falling into a dead calm, only to roar again. And that sets the tone for the whole movie.
The event was co-organised by Samira Amos and Agroecology Works!
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Mulika
in 2022, we co-organized with Braida Thom the screening of two short films by Congolese screenwriter and director Maisha Maene. Based in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Maisha Maene is an Afrofuturist artist whose work addresses human rights, environmental issues, and the fragmented history of his country.
Among his five short films, we screened Mulika and Mother nature, his latest work, which has been featured at prestigious festivals including Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, and Sundance.
Mulika follows an ‘afronaut’ who emerges from the wreckage of a spaceship in the volcanic crater of Mount Nyiragongo. As he descends into the city of Goma, his encounters with its people guide him toward understanding his mission.
The event highlighted Maisha Maene’s unique vision and storytelling, sparking conversations on Afrofuturism and the interplay of history, identity, and resilience in his films and it was followed by a discussion with him.
