common roots

2020, Documentary

Release Year: May 30, 2020
Country: United Kindom
Director: Anna Lamond, Anna Lamond, Vivian Williams

Common Roots tells the story of a community under attack that comes together by growing food. Like many urban neighborhoods, East Boston faces rapid gentrification. Its immigrant residents are being displaced. People face food insecurity. Climate change is bringing extreme floods.

Common Roots shows how a community garden joyfully builds resilience to these threats. Using food as our common thread, Eastie Farm builds bridges. Neighbors of different backgrounds come together to grow food that anyone can harvest. By existing on land that would otherwise be developed, the garden is instead a welcoming space for neighbors to come, listen to music together, and get to know one another.

The Coronavirus pandemic makes this message more important than ever: growing food in our communities makes us stronger together.

GALLERY

About the directors

Anna Lamond and Masha Vernik are best friends who have grown a passion for food alongside each other. Over many meals, we shared anger at our current food system and dreams about how to build a better one. Though we shared a passion, we pursued it separately – Anna followed a filmmaking path and learned about the food media world through an internship with Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, and Masha researched agroecology in Ecuador then worked on a vegetable farm near Seattle. We’re currently working on a web series that takes a look at how our current food system cons us out of eating healthily, how it got this way, and how we can get out of it.