Seed Stories - Film Screening and Conversation with Chitrangada Choudhury
In a village in the Niyamgiri mountains of Odisha's Eastern Ghats, a heroic effort is underway: barefoot ecologist Dr. Debal Deb and his 3 member-team are conserving in-situ over 1000 endangered heirloom varieties of rice. Odisha’s Eastern Ghats region is one of the world’s surviving biodiversity hotspots, with Adivasi communities like the Kondhs possessing the knowledge of growing multiple crops with their folk seeds, evolved over centuries. At the same time, the village and the wider region is irreversibly changing with the coming of genetically modified cotton seeds and associated chemicals. 'Seed Stories' takes a worm’s eye view of how this is reshaping a geography and a people steeped in agro-ecological knowledge, and altering their attitudes towards farming, food and ecology. It invites audiences to reflect on the question, 'What is sustainability?'
Speakers
Chitrangada Choudhury is an Indian journalist, filmmaker and geographer. Her reportage on the environment, social justice and rural communities has been cited for multiple awards including the Sanskriti Foundation Award, the Press Council of India’s National Award for Investigative Reporting, and the Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize twice. She has been on the founding team of The People's Archive of Rural India, and the Editorial Board of Article 14. Her academic research has appeared in edited volumes and journals including ‘Elementa – Science of the Anthropocene’ and ‘Capitalism, Nature, Socialism’ .
- Environment