Tribeca Film Festival 2023: COMMON GROUND

In the words of Bo Burnham, “The world is changing, the planet’s heating up, what the f*ck is going on?” Well, the answer is more simple than many would like to admit – we are destroying our planet, and climate change is threatening the lives of everyone and everything. There are various elements that play into the idea of climate change though, multiple variables cascading into disaster. Yet, as we work to go green and reduce our carbon footprint, what if the solution was simpler than we thought? What if it has always been there, right under our noses?

With director Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell‘s documentary Common Grounds, the key to saving our planet may be in our soil. For most, we were taught you have to till the soil, removing all vegetation in preparation to plant. And for the industry of farming, this technique is compounded by the fertilizers, pesticides, and modified seeds necessary to grow the crops that will feed the world. With Common Ground, however, the documentary challenges these beliefs and the system that propagandizes them. Rather, our soil has been destroyed leading to the climate change that ravages the globe – and the only way to save the planet is by saving the soil.

Dear Viewer…

Common Ground begins with celebrities, including Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Ian Somerhalder, Donald Glover, Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson, writing a letter. The documentary does not implicitly state who the letter is for, its recipients reshaping with each new voice that narrates it. Common Grounds wants the audience to feel that it could be a letter to themselves, to future generations, to the children – to anyone who will listen. And Common Ground is worth listening to.

During the course of its run time, Common Ground will break down its theory through its visual construction, laying out as clear as it can how regenerative farming saves the soil, saves farmers money and can be the answer we have all been looking for. With regenerative farming, the most important aspect is the absence of tilling the soil. Cover crops are planted alongside the primary crops, keeping the ground covered. For many, we have all see the clay-like dirt that may fill our gardens and fields, dry air and wind turning it into dust – rain into erosion. With the cover crops, the soil stays moist and facilitates an underground ecosystem that promotes a healthy plant growth.

It might sound counterintuitive as we have been taught that crops should not be competing with other plants for resources, but it turns out it needs other plants to increase carbon absorption and communication. Resources are not depleted but rather distributed through a symbiotic relationship. If your soil does not look like chocolate cake, this symbiosis has been severed – and it is to the detriment of your crops and your soil. And with no underground ecosystem to increase the saturation of carbon in the soil, excess carbon stays above ground affecting the planet’s climate and sustainability.

The only issue I could find with Common Ground it that at times it does begin to feel its run time a bit as it works its way through the system and propagates the industrial framework of farming. There is a lot of information to unpack, many times weighing heavy on its audience. But the information is necessary as Common Ground does not focus solely on the conversion to regenerative farming, but also the system is is up against.

As desolate and dry industrial farms are visually compared to the lush greens of regenerative farms, audiences will wonder why not convert if regenerative farming is so beneficial. The simple answer – lobbyists. The system is rigged against farmers, much of them driven further into debt with each planting season. The Farm Bill approved by Congress and the educational institutions that educate farmers is heavily based on the individuals in DC who promote and push for the subsidizing of certain crops. And with certain crops subsidized, the need for special seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers increases. And in this system designed for the success of agricultural corporations, speaking against such a systemic construct that fails farmers and the soil may see you out of a job and a position of power.

Conclusion

Common Ground is a deeply impactful documentary. As someone who has been on a journey to produce sustainable living within their own backyard, Common Ground becomes the eye-opening documentary it needs to be. From my own soil to the soil across the globe, the perceptions of farming have changed forever. Common Ground is vital, necessary documentation that there is a better way – a smarter way. That the system currently in place only harms and never helps. And if we don’t make changes soon, we all lose.

For more information, visit Kiss the Ground!

Watch Common Ground