Feature documentary in post-production.
ROOTED follows the story of Germaine Jenkins, a rising star activist and urban farmer in Charleston, South Carolina — the hub of this country’s former slave trade. Germaine’s 5-year quest to gain ownership of the .8 acre parcel of land she calls Fresh Future Farm represents more than her struggle to grow healthy food to combat the toxic diet in her food desert community; as a present-day kind of sharecropper, it mirrors the historic struggle of the Black community in a dominant White system.
We track Germaine’s battle against massive obstacles — physical, racial, legal, political, and systemic — as she petitions Charleston’s local government to either extend her farm’s lease or give her ownership of the plot. It’s a legal predicament that threatens to undo the entirety of her incredible work to-date and could effectively kill Fresh Future Farm.
The reality is that Germaine, like her ancestors, works a land she does not own. ROOTED’s deeper revelation is that when we talk about who controls the food chain and access to fresh produce in America, what we’re really talking about is whose health is prioritized, which bodies are revered,and which bodies are devalued.
Director: Bridget Besaw
Producer: Par Parekh
Co-producer: Bernard Parham