Rooted

Rooted

Release Date

2024

Director

  • Bridget Besaw
  • Par Parekh

Activist and urban farmer Germaine Jenkins is taking on the power structure in Charleston, SC, to counter the tide of toxic food that has ravaged her community for decades.

Faced with the lack of fresh produce in a South Carolina food desert, Germaine Jenkins dedicated ten years of her life to creating an urban farm on an empty city lot. Rooted embarks on an intimate journey alongside Germaine, a Black mother-of-two, resolute in her quest to own the land she farms — a critical first step in establishing stability for her community and sowing the seeds of generational wealth for her family. The specter of sharecropping’s legacy looms over Germaine as she navigates Southern government, well-intentioned nonprofits, and the realities of becoming a community leader. When the demands of working both the soil and the politicians exact their toll upon her health, Germaine must look inward and recalibrate her personal notion of triumph. Rooted celebrates the power of one woman’s unyielding commitment to food justice, and illuminates the path towards societal—and personal— metamorphosis.

    Past Programs

    2024

    An exploration of agricultural justice

    New Orleans Film Society, New Orleans, LA