Synopsis

Agro-industry, by aiming at immediate profit instead of agronomic wisdom, is responsible for the massive, unprecedented erosion of soils. If you add climate change and vanishing natural resources to the picture, even the Northern societies no longer seem to be safe from famines.   The film, optimistic but clear-sighted nonetheless, shows that these current crises in fact are positive challenges. In Cuba, the fall of the USSR in 1990 and the US embargo led to an oil peak long before it was due to happen.   Resource shortages led the Cubans to imagine innovative solutions in order to become more self-sufficient in food production. Food is now being produced organically, in a decentralized, community-supporting way. In France, farmers and researchers show us that agroforestry techniques which imitate natural ecosystems bear enormous potential for future methods of agriculture. Evolving from England, the Transition Town movement is developing amazingly quickly.   It proves that food production does not just lie in the hands of rural farmers but that it can move to the very heart of cities: city-dwellers are no longer mere consumers, but play a vital part in the transformation of their communities towards local self-sufficiency.

   

Director's statement

Having personally witnessed how capitalist logics would drive soil erosion and lead to disastrous land grabbing in the Global South, Nils Aguilar chose documentary film as a medium in order to alert and gather more support for proactive solutions.   Voices of Transition hence was conceived from the start as a positive change-making "tool" at the service of the global transition town movement.   Produced entirely independently, free from broadcaster or film school precepts, the film would not have been possible without long years of passionate unremunerated work and the help of crowdfunders from across the entire planet. The film's strong impact on the ground became evident when numerous transition and farming initiatives were being sparked spontaneously after public screenings events e.g. in Liège, Bonn and Stuttgart.   Today the film has been translated into 25 languages, including Mandarin, Galician and Armenian and still doesn't stop inspiring people to start digging up parking lots, reclaiming cities and re-imagining policies.      

Why this choice?

This constructive film goes back over the history of the green revolution and warns us against the risks and excesses of extensive agriculture.   Through examples such as Cuba, it shows that alternatives are possible and totally virtuous, as much in the energetic transition area as in the relocating of the economy and the agricultural production.   Thanks to interviews of quality players and iconic figures, the film presents techniques still somewhat unknown to the public at large such as permaculture or agroforestry and presents a very positive outlook of it all.   The film highlights in a very clear manner a complete assessment of the problems as well as the solutions. It constitutes a good initiation to the question for someone who wishes to have a complete picture.