The Last Farmer
Neoliberism, globalization and the agriculture of farmers
a Giuliano Girelli documentary
(Indonesia, Guatemala, Burkina Faso, Italy 2011 - 90 min.)
Produced by Mais ong, as part of the Creating Coherence project financed by the European Commission. Co/produced by Associazione Documè and Babydoc Film
The agriculture of farmers produces food for 70% of the planet’s population, whereas industrial agriculture covers no more than 30% of it. Nonetheless 2.8 million people in the world live on less than 2 dollars a day. Most of these people are farmers or ex-farmers who now live in shanty towns of one of the big cities of the world. This documentary is about them, about globalization and therefore also about us.
The Last Farmer explores the dramatic consequences of neoliberism and of globalization on the lives of small farmers in the world and follows the unfolding of a day’s events for Baldomera in Guatemala, Agi in Indonesia and Aloise in Burkina Faso. It includes interviews with Luciano Gallino, Hira Jhamtani, Giorgio Cingolani, Magaly Rey Rosa, Mamadou Goita and Roberto Schellino.
Director’s notes: While I was in Indonesia carrying out a first round of research on the small agriculture in Asia, I met Agi, a farmer from the island of Bali. It was in fact by spending a few days with him and his family with the purpose of doing some first shots that I realised that also our documentary should be built according to the criteria of being coherent with the subject we were treating. Because of this, rather than travelling around the world myself to gather other stories about small farmers, I decided to contact some friends of mine who are documentarians in Guatemala and Burkina Faso, so that they could be the ones to tell the story of their land and of their people. It was a little bit like creating a “zero food miles” documentary, a film which would try to avoid – where possible – the presence of an exclusively “Western” point of view on things.
Credits
direction: Giuliano Girelli
video Editing: Giuliano Girelli e Enrico Giovannone (babydoc film)
camerawork in Indonesia: Giuliano Girelli e Sara Scappin
camerawork in Guatemala: Victorino Tejaxun Alquijay
camerawork in Burkina Faso: Abdoul M. Compaore
camerawork in Italia: Giuliano Girelli e Francesco Bordino
audio mix: Niccolò Bosio
music: Giuliano Girelli and Niccolò Bosio
Farmers
Indonesia: I Ketut Sumiatra
Guatemala: Baldomera Xunic
Burkina faso: Eloïse Ouedraogo
Italy: Roberto Schellino
Experts
Italy: Prof.Luciano Gallino (sociologist, economist) and Giorgio Cingolani (agrarian economist)
Indonesia: Hira Jhamtani (environmental activist)
Guatemala: Magali Rey Rosa (environmental activist)
Mali: Mamadou Goïta (network of African farmer societies ROPPA)
Who is in the M.A.I.S.
The Creating Coherence project
