Current & Upcoming Films
BITTER SEEDS
Co-presented by
3rd i SF International South Asian Film Festival
Director Micha X. Peled in Person Friday & Saturday. More appearances to be announced.
Free ice cream at Opening Night, sponsored by the LabelGMOs campaign!
"The first two documentaries in Micha X. Peled’s globalization trilogy—Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town (SFIFF 2001) and China Blue (SF Asian-American FF 2005)—exposed the effects of multinational corporate profiteering on workers, whether Americans at Walmart or young Levi’s jeans factory workers in China. Bitter Seeds, the final film in the trilogy, is a vibrant investigation of the predicament of central Indian cotton farmers, caught up in a vicious cycle courtesy of Monsanto's genetically modified seeds. Refused loans by the banks, the farmers borrow from illegal moneylenders at exorbitant interest and inevitably fall into irredeemable debt, further aggravated by low yields and a need for more fertilizer and water. For the most desperate, the way out is suicide by drinking pesticide—such deaths now number over 250,000. The tiny miracle in this seemingly hopeless globalization tragedy is the daughter of one such suicide victim. Eighteen-year-old Manjusha yearns to be a journalist to expose the reasons for the suicides, but she has is up against family objections and village traditions. Peled’s latest heroine fights on the frontline of this global human and environmental crisis, driven by a desire to voice the perspective and preserve the dignity of the powerless." —Frako Loden. Prod & Dir: Micha X. Peled. USA, 2011, 88 min. Nightly at 7:00 & 9:15. Additional Saturday & Sunday (3:00) & 5:00.
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