Followed by a Zoom Q & A with director Mark Decena and producer Lynn Waymer
Farming While Black is a feature-length documentary film which examines the historical plight of Black farmers in the United States and the rising generation of Black farmers reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots.
As the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, Leah Penniman finds strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism – agricultural practices that can heal people and the planet. Influenced and inspired by Karen Washington, a pioneer in urban community gardens in New York City, and fellow farmer and organizer Blain Snipstal, Leah galvanizes around farming as the basis of revolutionary justice.
In 1910, Black farmers owned 14 percent of all American farmland. Over the intervening decades, that number fell below two percent, the result of racism, discrimination, and dispossession. The film chronicles Penniman and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. Collectively, their work has a major impact, as each is a leader in sustainable agriculture and food justice movements.
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MARK DECENA | Writer & Director
Raised by an immigrant single mother, Mark spent his formative years softening hard adobe clay soil with compost. Besides keeping him in line, it infused Decena with a love of growing things– to date: feature films, television shows, and short film series.
A three time Sundance alumni, Mark’s first feature, Dopamine won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize. Decena’s documentary work spans across themes of social justice, sustainable design and the environment. He wrote and directed the Redford Center film, Watershed, and was a writer and producer on Stand Up Planet, a Gates funded project that aired on Participant Media’s channel, Pivot and KCET. His latest feature film, Not Without Us, premiered as the closing night film at the S.F. Green Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. Decena’s latest short films, Remothering the Land, co-produced with Patagonia Films, premiered at the DC Environmental Film Festival, and Me & My Robot premiered at COPDOX and aired on PBS. Mark is also the founder of Kontent, a boutique production company based in San Francisco, housing a Kollective of award winning filmmakers, producers and creatives working on original and branded works.
Lynn Waymer directs development and execution of communications, community engagement and social impact strategies. Currently as Co-Producer of FARMING WHILE BLACK, she leads community engagement, social impact, and film distribution. Formerly Director of Distribution for HBO, she’s worked on creating localized and national partnerships, community screening events and digital social impact and outreach campaigns for KPJR Films including: The Big Picture: Re-thinking Dyslexia; Paper Tigers, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope and Playing for Keeps and independent films including Black Women In Medicine, HAPPENING: A Clean Energy Revolution and Broken Places. Lynn has worked with award-winning documentary film directors including Krystal Emery; James Redford and The Redford Center; Roger Weisberg and Roger Ross Williams. In addition, she’s consulted with The Yale School of Medicine’s Center for Dyslexia & Creativity on national literacy initiatives impacting underserved communities.
Lynn graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Radio, TV & Film and obtained a certificate in Strategic Marketing from Emory University. In addition, she completed Leadership development programs at the Center for Creative Leadership and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. She was a Walter Kaitz Fellow through which she obtained Certification in Cable System Marketing and Management from The University Of Denver.
Living in metro-Atlanta with her husband as empty nesters, Lynn has devoted this chapter in her life to making a difference in the lives of others through the medium that she loves-TV and film.
