A Documentary Follows a Malawian Farmer Seeking Climate Justice
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.
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Sonali Kolhatkar
is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights, 2023). 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. She reflects on her professional path in her 2014 TEDx talk, “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host.” She can be reached at sonalikolhatkar.com
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