A Documentary Follows a Malawian Farmer Seeking Climate Justice

Apr 5, 2023

A powerful documentary about climate change has hit select theaters around the U.S. Directed and produced by activist, writer, and academic Raj Patel, The Ants & the Grasshopper follows an African farmer named Anita Chitaya from her rural village in Malawi to midwest American farms and the halls of Congress as she navigates the political gridlock that fuels climate change. Chitaya is a popular local leader who, when she’s not farming her 1 acre of land, uses her powers of persuasion for social justice. The Ants & the Grasshopper will be in theaters for select dates starting on March 31 and will be available digitally on April 11 through Giant Pictures.

YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar spoke with Patel, one of the film’s directors and producers, for Rising Up With Sonali.

Read YES! Senior Editor Breanna Draxler’s 2021 report on the documentary here.

The views expressed here and on Rising Up With Sonali do not necessarily reflect the opinion of YES! Media.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.