You Think The Earth Is A Dead Thing (Tu Crois Que La Terre Est Chose Morte) (2020, dir. Florence Lazar) 

What drew me to this documentary was its name. Its title, You Think The Earth Is A Dead Thing, seemed to be a challenge to the viewer. Florence Lazar’s film focuses on the farmers who inhabit Martinique and their battle to claim back their land from years of industrial pesticide damage. Through interviews with both locals and small farm owners, Lazar clearly shows the viewer the issues they face. 

By using footage from both the wilds of the Martinique jungles and the industrial banana processing plants, we are introduced both to the agriculture that is destroying Martinique and agriculture that has the ability to save Martinique and support the small local farmers. The film focuses on the colonial structures that still remain from the times of slavery, and on the traditional wild herbs that possess medicinal purposes. 

With no clear narrative device, Lazar forces the viewer to pay attention to the issues shown on the screen that face “tropical Europe”. While the shots linger too long and a substantial part of its contents is too mundane to add information to the film, its message is still clear, that without the small farmers and locals, the biodiversity of Martinique will be destroyed and so with its traditions of the past. 

Written by Hope Rowen