Common Ground

"Common Ground", the 2023 documentary by Joshua and Rebecca Tickell, is not just a film; it's a powerful narrative that delves into topics surrounding regenerative agriculture and how it can positively impact our environment. What sets "Common Ground" apart is it's approach to deal with such controversial topics like the ongoing Roundup Trial. The film sheds light on the injustices and the environmental consequences, giving a voice to those who have been affected. Getting to hear from so many different perspectives really opened up my eyes to the severity of these issues. It's a touching story and left me motivated to take the necessary steps to help out our planet!

From the moment the film opens, Common Ground demonstrates a mature self-assuredness in its message. The film's impressive suite of familiar faces, such as Rosario Dawson, Jason Momoa, Laura Dern, and Donald Glover, each kick off the film by composing letters to the future generations. These letters serve as both warnings of the impending climate disaster, and also promises to make a difference now, before things get worse. There's a problem, and we must solve it. That problem is climate change, and if humanity can't work together for a solution, there's no backup Earth.

The damage to our environment in the wake of industrial agriculture is difficult to hear about, and even harder to imagine fixing. Green grasslands and forests are turning into deserts. Soils in our farmlands are turning to dust. Carcinogens from pesticides and herbicides are leaching into our food. In the face of these threats and challenges, long-time eco-documentarians Joshua and Rebecca Tickell offer what few other climate documentaries of this kind can: a real, actionable solution to climate change. A solution that doesn't just halt the destruction, but reverses the damage already done. A solution that's been hiding just beneath our feet.

Through the testimony of regenerative ranchers and incisive contributions of soil experts, Common Ground reveals a better way to go about farming known as regenerative agriculture. This approach to farming involves managing farmland for soil health and avoiding practices that damage the soil microbiome. Where conventional agricultural practices such as pesticides, herbicides, and tillage kill microorganisms in the soil and rip up the delicate root networks that allow carbon to be stored in the earth, regeneration offers a wholesome alternative, strengthening plants against pests by natural means such as managed grazing, fertilizing with manure, and sowing seeds without damaging this natural system. Regenerative agriculture harnesses the power of photosynthesis to siphon dangerous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, drawing them down into the plants we grow and storing it securely in the soil, reversing the damage of climate change.

The film further illustrates through stunning close-ups and sweeping landscapes shots alike how regenerative methods improve human nutrition, enrich rural communities, and restore the water cycles vital to life. This beautiful cinematography enlivens an assortment of impactful real-world examples from successful regenerative farmers. While his neighbor's conventionally managed field remains an expanse of barren dirt, Gabe Brown's regeneratively managed property stands as thriving pastures and cropland. In Williamsport Indiana, Rick Clark saves millions of dollars per acre through regenerative methods, showcasing the potential for regeneration to enliven rural economies across the nation. Meanwhile, Alejandro Carrillo brings life back to the arid Chihuahua desert, harnessing regenerative soil management through managed grazing to literally create rain! These methods are having a tangible impact on the places they are implemented, and Common Ground invites us to witness these transformations first-hand.

With a contemplative and moving soundtrack by Jacob Samuel Snider and Jim Fairchild, and the beautiful cinematography of Simon Balderas and Joaquim Pujol, Common Ground offers a narrative that transcends mere exposition into artful revelation. Shots of sprawling fields and mountains give a holistic, birds-eye perspective on the landscapes affected and changed by these natural processes. Orchestral swells and punctuated silences lend the movie a feeling of belonging amongst even the most affecting cinema. Common Ground is impactful, insightful, and shows us what real solutions to climate change look like! Thank you Joshua and Rebecca Tickell! And thank you, especially to Gabe Brown! Here's to regenerating the future!

Everyone is connected to not only each other, but also to the Earth. However, we are living in a society that is so incredibly divided that we forget this simple fact. Despite all of our differences, we all share a common ground, the soil in which we live upon. It's from the soil that we are sustained. Common Ground by Joshua and Rebecca Tickell, dives into the fact that soil is what is keeping the environment stable. Given that most of our food is grown in the soil, unhealthy soil means unhealthy food. Our health is directly tied to what we consume, and as mentioned in the film, food is quite literally medicine. Regenerative practices will be the legacy that we leave behind so that future generations can thrive. With a packed cast of actors who are passionate about the film's message, such as Ian Somerhalder, Common Ground is a catalyst for change in the agricultural world.

Important message to everyone that our food choices and how it is produced affects soils. Saving our soil will save us from environmental disaster. We can all do our part in advocating regenerative agriculture. Registered for Amazon prime just to watch is highly important documentary. Hopefully their message can be spread to as many people as possible. Change is possible and we all have our part to play. This documentary is story telling at it's best, making the complicated easy to understand. Complexity of farming made simple, if I were a conventional farmer I would transition to regenerative agriculture!

This is a letter. A letter that serves as a warning for the future generation. For our world. This is how the documentary Common Ground chose to start the journey with the audience. Starting off with a somber tone that many documentaries follow while discussing environmental health. But where Common Ground branches off is how by the end, the audience is left teary eyed and full of hope that it is never too late to start making a better future. And that letter then serves as a promise that we will never give up. Common Ground stands as its own piece of art that delivers a clear environmental message and how we can change the world. Just from using soil.

The directors Joshua and Rebecca Tickell dives into one of the most powerful tools that can heal the world's and human health which is regenerative agriculture. This is the process of reshaping the ecosystem so it can be used to produce benefits for humans while aiding the world's health like reducing carbon from the atmosphere and bringing animals back to an ecosystem. We experience the power of regenerative agriculture as the documentary takes the audience across America to meet insightful experts on the subject. In North Dakota, regenerative rancher Gabe Brown compares his luscious farmland full of animals chirping to his neighbor's land that has turned into a gray block from modern agricultural practice. Up north in upstate New York, regenerative rancher Leah Penniman brought life back to an ecosystem that was deemed to have the worst soil health in the area through regenerative practices. Far west in California, Founder of Ecdysis Foundation Jonathan Lundgren teaches the truth of regenerative agriculture from the lies that he was taught from the agrochemical companies control of the agriculture education system. All of these narrative elements are guided by the stellar narration of Laura Dern, Rosario Dawson, Ian Somerhalder, Donald Glover, and Jason Momoa.

It's not just Tickell's directing skills that shine in the documentary. The production gets to show their love for the cinema arts through their own work. Zianna Milito's detailed animation provides visuals for Tickell's writing to make the different insights of regenerative agriculture more understandable. With some animation moments, it feels as if we are part of the explanation as the camera travels through interweaving roots and flowing with the carbon dioxide which has the audience stay engaged with the explanation. As stated before, the documentary travels in the U. S. as the main setting. This containment doesn't just allow the audience to follow the documentary's story, but also show them how close these individuals are to each other. It gives a comforting and hopefully feeling that these like minded individuals are not scarce throughout the world. It feels that the documentary sways regenerative agriculture as a collaborative effort with anyone can engage with the practice and heal the world. And this is the biggest accomplishment of the documentary: encouragement. At the end, the letter at the beginning ends with a hopeful promise that we won't quit in healing the world. This statement can spark hope within us and aid in the battle for a better world.

Common Ground chose to do what many documentaries could not: bring hope. Through the content and filmmaking, the documentary is a great watch for any person, and I hope they found hope as I did for the environment.