Seeds of Hope: South Africa

Sarah Hesterman
Gotham Pictures

Sarah Hesterman

Documentary
Short Film

More About Seeds of Hope: South Africa from the Director Sarah Hesterman

Seeds of Hope was produced in connection with the Salzburg Seminar session 398 “Achieving Food Security through Community-Based Food Systems,” sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This session brought together faculty and fellows from around the world in May 2002. Many of these participants were experts in the field of food security and sustainable agriculture and others were representatives of successful community-based organizations. The purpose of the seminar was to share experiences, explore successful methodologies and discuss solutions.

During this session I conducted interviews with many of the participants. I asked them to tell me the stories of how their communities are addressing the issue of world hunger from the ground up. What I got were stirring accounts of how poor rural communities can feed themselves by growing their own food locally in a sustainable way. There were many amazing stories and models of success, and Seeds of Hope: South Africa highlights one of these.

A half-hour version of Seeds of Hope includes three more stories of local sustainable agriculture, demonstrating the capacity of communities to find their own solutions to poverty and hunger. The purpose of the film is to present these successful models and methodologies so that they can be applied and replicated in future projects and in other communities. I also hope that the film will demonstrate to policymakers that a community-based approach to food security can be successful.

Find more films on Agriculture and Food Politics from MediaRights.

FILMMAKER BIO

Sarah Hesterman, Director

Sarah Hesterman grew up in East Lansing, Michigan and is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a B.F.A. in Film & Television. She is currently on staff at Gotham Pictures as a producer of corporate videos and documentary-style pieces. Telly Award-winning Seeds of Hope is the second video she has produced in association with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation dealing with food issues. The organic food and sustainable agriculture movements have inspired her to produce a television series, currently in development. Sarah is also producing and directing the independent documentary Rhyme Tight about an aspiring underground hip-hop group from Brooklyn. Sarah is dedicated to creating media that deals responsibly with critical social issues and her life goal is to raise awareness and understanding through film.

W.K.Kellogg Foundation, Producer

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to apply knowledge to solve the problems of people. Its founder W.K. Kellogg, the cereal industry pioneer, established the Foundation in 1930. Since its beginning the Foundation has continuously focused on building the capacity of individuals, communities, and institutions to solve their own problems. Programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities. http://www.wkkf.org.