Documentary ‘Sustain Punjab’- The Bread Basket of Punjab now crippling with Environmental Crisis!

The historically prosperous state of Punjab, situated in the northwest corner of India, is one of the country’s most fertile regions. Known as the “bread basket of India,” its soil is home to rolling fields of wheat, rice paddies and sugarcane plantations. But trouble lurks in paradise: Punjab suffers from an environmental crisis that is a result of the 1960s Green Revolution that brought mechanized agriculture, genetically modified seeds and chemical fertilizers to Punjab, and has today resulted in poor farming practices, excessive pesticide usage and a shrinking groundwater table.

This sustainability crisis captured the attention of Chris Canales CC ’14 and Angad Singh CC ’16, who filmed an original documentary in rural Punjab during the summer of 2013. Their film, compiled from interviews conducted with rural community members, agriculturists, and academics, provides a comprehensive overview of the crisis, with a focus on rural Punjabi youth, who will inherit the socioeconomic problems their families face due to the crisis: dependence on government subsidies, poor harvests and crippling debt.

Film is a powerful medium to convey the complexity of a multigenerational crisis without pretending that we have the answers

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By documenting a little-known crisis that is often overshadowed by larger, global environmental concerns, Sustain Punjab aims to reach an audience far beyond the local communities that the crisis has impacted. And for the sake of the young people of the agricultural communities, who stand to inherit a land besieged by so many problems, Canales and Singh hope that it succeeds in spreading its message.

Film will become a tool to create awareness about Punjab among U.S. audiences. “Our project isn’t just about a film. Our focus is the story of the youth of Punjab and the difficulties they face growing up.

~ Source: www.college.columbia.edu