Genre
Synopsis
The feature documentary UNTITLED: U.S. ISLAND TERRITORIES PROJECT will be composed of evocative vignettes featuring female and non- binary LGBTQ+ grassroots advocates on the frontlines of the food sovereignty movement in four of the U.S. island territories. Each island is beholden to unique sets of laws and restrictions but have in common the loss of land for use by the U.S. government for military bases and their toxic experiments, monoculture that destroys the soil and decimates natural defenses against hurricanes, and to exploit the land for tourism, all resulting in a forced reliance on overpriced, unhealthy, and ultraprocessed foods from primarily U.S. food conglomerates.
In Puerto Rico, we see entrepreneur Crystal making a delivery to a high profile restaurant in the capitol of San Juan, dropping off scarcely found locally grown fruits and vegetables that are indigenous to the island- all through the app she developed to bring farm to table. Next, Tara is harvesting breadfruit with other members of the queer collective homestead, OtraCosa on a lush mountainside on the island. Then, they are at Departamento de la Comida where volunteers are sifting through the native seed library with locals and encouraging backyard farming. In Guam, farming advocate, educator, and indigenous Chamorro Ursula teaches a class on growing nearly extinct indigenous fruit to elementary school children. In the Northern Mariana Islands, Rica conducts field research on obesity in a small local village. And back in the Caribbean, Sommer Sibilly, a local leader in the food sovereignty movement in the U.S. Virgin Islands, checks in with local farmers and producers and helps them with strategizing the sale of their upcoming crops.
These are all community leaders and organizations dedicated to the food sovereignty movement. As declared by attendees of the first global forum on food sovereignty in 2007 in Mali:
“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.”
And islanders would add, the right to a future where they produce that food for the health of the people, their island, and the planet.
Bio
Cionín is an award winning Latina filmmaker from Brooklyn, New York. She just completed a feature documentary as the director, writer, and co-producer, Three (Extra)Ordinary Women, which is currently making the film festival rounds.
She is the Senior Video Producer for the Brooklyn Museum and recently was the Showrunner on two Peacock/T+ unscripted series. She started her career at MTV Networks where for over 15 years she worked on celebrity driven programming for MTV News & Docs, MTV International, MTV Latin America and MTV tr3s, including as Director of two short documentaries on Shakira, and Field Director of MTV Cribs for 5 years. Later, as Supervising Producer/Showrunner, she oversaw a team of over 30 people for the production of 70 episodes that were produced within three years. Recently, she was the story producer of the 2021 Imagen Award winning short film Lights, Camera Acción for American Masters (PBS) and the 2018 Imagen Award winning PBS Great Performances documentary John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway. She is currently in the final stages of production on a feature documentary on families raising children with disabilities, while researching, developing, and consulting on content that touches upon decolonization, climate change, and the arts.
