"A marginalized peasant community challenges corporate power and takes climate resilience into their own hands...giv[ing] hope to us all." Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director, Food First

Canadian journalist, media personality and documentarian Avi Lewis, along with his wife, author Naomi Klein, has advocated for radically new social and political structures as the only viable and effective response to climate change. In KEEPERS OF THE FUTURE he profiles the Bajo Lempa coordinadora, a farmers' cooperative that demonstrates how "deep local democracy" can help even a poor population build environmental, economic and political resilience.



Grade Level: 7 - 12, College, Adults
US Release Date: 2018     Copyright Date: 2017
DVD ISBN: 1-948745-12-7

Reviews "Disaster capitalism runs up against agroecology and community power! Keepers of the Future is a wake-up call for anyone feeling overwhelmed about climate change. A marginalized peasant community challenges corporate power and takes climate resilience into their own hands. A bold, simple, yet powerful tale that gives hope to us all." Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director, Food First, Author, A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat "Captivating...What is the exciting about this documentary is the emphasis on Salvadoran people...The activities captured by the film show participatory democracy in action and a critique of human interference in nature...Keepers of the Future sheds light on the real lives of people who want to develop in whichever way they can and regardless of their past experiences." Vanessa Braga Matijascic, E-International Relations "Stirring...A valuable classroom teaching resource on topics such as climate resilience and food sovereignty...This documentary offer a refreshing antidote to both dystopian climate futures and degrading stereotypes of Salvadorans that pervade current U.S. immigration debates. Paying attention to movements like La Coordinadora can help spark the sense of urgency and possibility that are vital to building more desirable food futures." Anelyse Weiler, Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies "Keepers of the Future documents exactly what it takes to transform the world: working cooperatively to care for ourselves and our ecosystems. Those engaged in environmental regeneration and social justice will gain insights into a working model for an abundant future. We need films like this to provide patterns of organization, cooperation, and exertion for long-lasting community improvement of our places." Jason Gerhardt, Co-Director, Permaculture Institute, Ecological Designer, Real Earth Design "People here know what it is to struggle. Despite bullying from economic powers and pressure from the government, despite floods and drought, they resist. As they fish and plow, they generate new possibilities of small-scale, sustainable growth. They reveal a hint of sunlight as danger can seem to loom everywhere. The film offers a hopeful perspective for students and community members who want to move beyond crisis to imagine, and create, a better future." Dr. Ellen Moodie, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Author, El Salvador in the Aftermath of Peace: Crime, Uncertainty, and the Transition to Democracy "Keepers of the Future shows how a rural community in El Salvador 'develops' livelihood resilience by taking cues from its natural environment rather than state/corporate interest in capitalizing the landscape for plantation and tourist dollars. At a time when humans face catastrophic ecosystem and climate emergencies, this film's directness in chronicling people's self-organizing capacities offers a compelling didacticism. Public screenings might well focus on how social mobilization changes power relations." Dr. Philip McMichael, Professor of Sociology, Faculty Fellow, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University "Keepers of the Future tells the story of how the Coordinadora del Bajo Lempa, a social movement on the coast of El Salvador, built power and created a good life for their community through deep local democracy. They were able to resist privatization of their lands and the return of exploitative sugar and cotton industries to their region. But even more significantly, they learned to self-organize to protect their people from the frequent flooding and droughts caused by climate change. An inspiring and hopeful film about the power of vision and cooperation." Dr. Molly D. Anderson, Professor and Director of Food Studies, Middlebury College "This film brings together two crucial topics that are rarely discussed in conjunction: community organization and the climate crisis...In Keepers of the Future we see firsthand how organizing can overcome vulnerability. This film would be a great addition to syllabi or community agendas related to climate vulnerability and/or community organization and development." Dr. Michael L. Dougherty, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University "Keepers of the Future can be used in the classroom to bring to life with voices and images several themes: El Salvador's geography; events leading up to the nation's civil war; and El Salvador's political parties and system. A final discussion could examine in local and global context foreign companies' efforts to take natural resources from El Salvador's people. This discussion would focus on how communities that organized themselves during the war have used the strategies they learned to act together for what is best for them, their families and their homes." Elizabeth Kennedy, Ph.D. candidate of Geography, San Diego State Univ/Univ of California - Santa Barbara "Instructive for classrooms and grassroots organizations alike, Keepers of the Future offers a real example of how communities can work together to create resilience in the face of contemporary environmental, political and socioeconomic threats." Dr. Tomas Matza, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh "Keepers of the Future is not just about a community's struggle against the effects of climate change, but in discovering their own agency. It has a powerful message for all, resonating in particular to youth. I would definitely recommend this film to high school and college students, nonprofits and community organizations. We share vulnerabilities with the people of Bajo Lempa and are inspired by their courage to organize themselves to mitigate against the dangers they face, and to share what they have learned with other communities." Dr. Richard Navarro, Professor of Education, California State Polytechnic University, former Chief of Party, USAID Project for Productivity through Higher Education in El Salvador "A spellbinding case study of how ordinary people have said no to elite-driven paths for their future, and have instead built their own community-led, diversified agriculture. Full of insights into how organized communities can foster 'deep local democracy' in place of the environmental, social, and economic 'vulnerability' more typically imposed on them. This film will bring hope to your students, your environmental group, your social justice event, and your wider community. Keepers of the Future will haunt - but in ways that illuminate vibrant and viable alternatives." Dr. Robin Broad, Professor of Environment and Development, American University