LUSAW: Exploring Urban Agriculture (2024)

Dahling Nick

The story of Nick Joaquin, who only accepted the National Artist Award on the condition that the Marcos administration release a well-known writer who was being unjustly detained during Martial Law.

La ferme et son état

Plot unavailable

Sheep Dog

Tom Jones, a shepherd who lived in one of the Ystradfechan Cottages at Old Farm, Treorchy, was employed by the Ocean Coal Company who owned the land above ground and coal (the Park and the Dare Collieries) beneath. A farrier who lived in the adjoining cottage tended to all the Park and Dare pit ponies. Tom Jones was known world-wide as the “Wonder Shepherd” for his remarkable skills as an animal trainer which, together with his concern for his flock, are recorded here.

Sunday Beauty Queen

Beneath Hong Kong's glittering facade, Filipina domestic helpers work in relative anonymity and for near-slave wages. In a beauty pageant like no other, five helpers give themselves makeovers for a day and gleefully reclaim their dignity.

Canada Vignettes: The Move

In this short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series, a Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use. The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.

Milk Men

As the global economics of dairy farming has winnowed out most small and medium-sized dairies, the surviving farmers confront pressures to intensify production, even as they find that getting bigger presents new problems.

We Were the Scenery

In 1975, soon after the end of the Vietnam War, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che fled the country on a small boat. After nine days at sea, they docked in the Philippines, where they were utilized as background extras for “Apocalypse Now.”

In Search of Balance

An exploration of a new paradigm of health, science, and medicine, based on the interconnections between us and nature.

Seeds of Change

An organic farmer in Maine sets out to transform the prison food system. Seeds of Change captures the intersecting stories of life-long farmer Mark McBrine and several incarcerated men as they harvest their own meals from a five-acre prison garden unlike any other.

Gazoros Serron

Plot unavailable

Food, Inc.

Documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner examines how mammoth corporations have taken over all aspects of the food chain in the United States, from the farms where our food is grown to the chain restaurants and supermarkets where it's sold. Narrated by author and activist Eric Schlosser, the film features interviews with average Americans about their dietary habits, commentary from food experts like Michael Pollan and unsettling footage shot inside large-scale animal processing plants.

Heartland Local Food

This film explores food sustainability, how farmers' markets build community, and why local food matters. Filmmaker Dr. Benjamin Garner is an Associate Professor at the University of North Georgia. He produces films on food, marketing, and tourism. Dr. Garner consults with companies on soft skills training and produces video ads for web and social media.

Storm Children, Book One

The Philippines is visited by an average of 20~28 strong typhoons and storms every year. It is the most storm-battered country in the world. Last year, Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), considered the strongest storm in history, struck the Philipines, leaving in its path apocalyptic devastation.

The Milk System

Milk is Big Business. Behind the innocent appearances of the white stuff lies a multi-billion euro industry, which perhaps isn't so innocent…

Bontok, Rapeless

Two Filipina victims of sexual abuse search the truth behind the finding of a renowned anthropologist: that merely a few generations ago, the Bontok Igorot lived in what seems an unthinkable utopia—a rape-less society.

Call Her Ganda

When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case--an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Jennifer's mother)--galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of US imperialism.

The Harvest

Gurwinder comes from Punjab, he’s been working for years as a farm hand in Agro Pontino, not far from Rome. Since he first came in Italy, he’s been living with the rest of the Sikh community in Latina province. Hardeep is also Indian, but her stress is Roman, and she works as a cultural mediator. She, born and raised in Italy, is trying to free herself from the memories of a family that emigrated in another age, while he is forced, against his faith, to take methamphetamine and doping to bear the heavy work pace, to be able to send money in India.

Production Line Animals

How did it come about that we no longer see living beings in farm animals, but objects? Every year, 70 billion farm animals are slaughtered for consumption around the world. 80 percent are kept on large farms. They live crammed together in overcrowded stables, are fattened and finally slaughtered without ever having been in nature. In less than two generations, intensive husbandry has become established worldwide. Researches in Poland, the USA, Germany and Vietnam gets to the bottom of the system and those responsible. The meat industry is subsidized by the state. Corporations, governments and consumers tacitly support a deregulated and dehumanized economic system that makes unlimited consumption of animal products the norm - and with it, animal cruelty. The documentary film describes the triumph of industrial agriculture, in which the animal has to endure unimaginable suffering, becomes a commodity, a raw material that is always available and can be slaughtered and processed at will.

Written on Water: A Modern Tale of a Dry West

Examines the conflicts, politics, economics, and groundwater depletion in the High Plains region, with a focus on the Ogallala Aquifer. Farmers and communities survive on the precious waters of the Aquifer, yet it is being depleted at alarming rates.

Our Soil is Our Heritage

Right on our doorstep there is something that feeds us all: living soil. But this precious resource is under threat – from us humans! Our planet needs more than 2000 years to form ten centimetres of fertile soil. What does this mean for the future?

Machete Maidens Unleashed!

In the final decades of the 20th century, the Philippines was a country where low-budget exploitation-film producers were free to make nearly any kind of movie they wanted, any way they pleased. It was a country with extremely lax labor regulations and a very permissive attitude towards cultural expression. As a result, it became a hotbed for the production of cheapie movies. Their history and the genre itself are detailed in this breezy, nostalgic documentary.

Kid Kulafu

Before he became one of the world's greatest boxers, Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao was a young boy living a hand-to-mouth existence, trying to survive from one day to the next. When he discovers his natural talent for boxing, he embarks on a brutal and intense journey that takes him from the mountains of the Philippines to the streets of Manila, and must risk everything to become a champion - for himself, his family, and his country.

A Bad Name

Two street artists with contrasting intentions about the artform tell the relevance of street art in society while accompanied by an enigmatic graffiti writing, “Bon Jovi.”

Kiss the Ground

Sheds light on an alternative approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.

Douce France

Amina, Sami and Jennyfer are high school students in the Paris suburbs, in 93. At the initiative of 3 of their teachers, they embark on an unexpected investigation into a gigantic leisure park project which involves concreting agricultural land near their homes. But can we have the power to act on a territory when we are 17 years old? Funny and intrepid, these new citizens take us to meet residents of their neighborhood, property developers, farmers and even elected officials of the National Assembly. A joyful quest that challenges conventional wisdom and revives our connection to the land!

On Her Own

Nancy Prebilich and her sister live with their parents on a farm that has been in their family for five generations. With the unexpected death of both parents, the sisters are left to keep this dying farm out of foreclosure amidst the many perils faced by America’s farmers.

Angpao, diskarteng Badjao

The story explores the life of three Badjao brothers, Diether, Rakmel, and Agi, who beg on jeepneys. This documentary captures the difficult realities the siblings face every day in the bustling streets of Manila, where they are often unnoticed and ignored by society. By speaking out and supporting initiatives to alleviate inequity, Angpao, diskarteng Badjao encourages viewers to acknowledge these problems and take action.

My Name is Sandara Park

Before 2NE1 achieved global success, Sandara was already a superstar in the Philippines.

Kasama Kang Tumanda

A filmmaker follows her grandparents’ daily life after her chain-smoker and alcoholic grandmother is forced to stop drinking beer for a month.

Return: Native American Women Reclaim Foodways for Health & Spirit

Concerned about the declining health of people all around them, Native American women are sparking physical and spiritual rejuvenation through reclaiming traditional foodways.