Screening Information

Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Start Time: 8:15 PM
Runtime: 1 hour 15 minutes
Location: ASU Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center
50 N Centennial Way, Mesa, AZ 85201

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Film Description

Farming While Black is a feature-length documentary that examines the history of Black farmers in the United States and the growing movement of farmers reclaiming land, culture, and agricultural knowledge.

The film follows Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, who draws strength from the rich traditions of African agrarian practices—farming methods rooted in care for the land, community, and ecological balance. Alongside leaders such as urban farming pioneer Karen Washington and organizer Blain Snipstal, Penniman works to rebuild connections between farming, justice, and cultural heritage.

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Once owning nearly 14 percent of American farmland in 1910, Black farmers now hold less than two percent due to decades of systemic racism and land loss. Through powerful storytelling and inspiring voices, Farming While Black highlights a new generation reclaiming farming as a path toward food sovereignty, sustainability, and social justice.

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Director:

Mark Decena is a writer, director, and producer of award-winning feature films and documentaries. A three-time Sundance alumnus, his first feature film Dopamine won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Decena’s documentary work often explores environmental justice, sustainable design, and social change. He wrote and directed Watershed, a Redford Center documentary narrated by Robert Redford about water use in the Colorado River Basin. His previous feature documentary Not Without Us followed grassroots activists traveling to the United Nations climate negotiations in Paris and later aired nationally on PBS.