CLOSE TO THE FIRE (2015)

Where does change come from? How do you move into the future without erasing the past? What does the struggle against inequality look like on the ground? And how do you reshape tomorrow when you’re worried about whether your kids will eat today?

Close to the Fire takes us to three communities on three continents, where three activists are working to ignite change. In South Africa, Moloko Mokame works to bring food production closer to home, breaking free of a globalized food chain that dis-empowers the people of her township. In Bangladesh, Mohon Mondal fights to preserve a way of life as climate change literally erodes the ground beneath his feet. And on a Pomo reservation in California, Nathan Rich looks to his ancestors as he builds a sustainable home and a better way of life for his tribe.

We imagine a ‘first world’ and a ‘third world’ as opposites: one powerful and one helpless; one exploitive and one victimized; or one benevolent and one grateful. But maybe the people we see as marginal are more empowered than we think.

Director: Lindsay Richardson

Executive Producer: Pamela Tanner Boll