Food Chains

Name: Food Chains
Director: Sanjay Rawal
Released: 2014

Sanjay Rawal 2014

There is more interest in food these days than ever, yet there is very little interest in the hands that pick it. Farmworkers, the foundation of our fresh food industry, are routinely abused and robbed of wages. In extreme cases they can be beaten, sexually harassed or even enslaved – all within the borders of the United States.
Food Chains reveals the human cost in our food supply and the complicity of large buyers of produce like fast food and supermarkets.

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Running Time:

82 min.

Spoken Languages:

English

Directors:

Sanjay Rawal

Producers:

Eva Longoria, Smriti Keshari, Hamilton Fish

Cinematographers:

Forest Woodward

Editors:

Erin Barnett, Emily Gumpel Clifton

Immigration and Migrat..

Press

Raj Patel, Research Professor, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs, UT Austin, Author of "Stuffed and Starved"

"Food Chains is the kind of film I've been waiting to teach from - it helps students think not only about what's wrong with the food system, but how organizing for social change can help fix it. I know that students will come away moved, curious for more, and hungry for change - whose classroom could ask for more?"

Raj Patel
Shane Hamilton, Associate Professor, History Department, University of Georgia

"No documentary on the modern food system does a better job of putting farmworkers' struggles for social justice into the broad context of 21st-century capitalism. Food Chains explores the darkest corners of America's agricultural landscape, showing how an inspiring coalition of workers, farmers, and consumers are bending corporate might to fight for dignity in American farm fields. This is exactly the sort of provocative, well-researched film I've been wanting to use in my Food and Power course for years."

Shane Hamilton
The Hollywood Reporter

"The film well documents the difficult conditions faced by the workers."

THR Staff
The New York Times

"“Food Chains” enriches its argument with a brief history of low-wage field workers and unenforced laws, as well as pointed comments from a handful of relevant interviewees..."

Jeannette Catsoulis

Festival Participation

Berlin Film Festival - 2014
Tribeca Film Festival - 2014
Napa Valley Film Festival - 2014
Guadalajara Film Festival - 2014

Additional Materials

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