As an undergraduate anthropology student at UC Santa Barbara, I encountered a book entitled the Epic of Sundiata, a rich story told in the traditional oral history style of the West African griot. It introduced to me the enchanting world of the Mali Empire centuries ago, and I at once became interested in this region's myths and lore: its kings, divine hunters, legendary musical tradition, academic erudition, and spirituality.

Soon after, through my roommate from Mauritania who was taking an African Studies course, I met and befriended Dr. Scott Lacy, an anthropology professor and researcher born in Ohio and now based at Fairfield University in Connecticut who has done work in Mali for over two decades. I was fascinated by the research he and his team of agroecology scientists and local subsistence farmers were doing pertaining to sustainable agriculture, as well as by his personal journey and his host-village’s story of community transformation.

After discussing working on some short video projects with Dr. Lacy, I traveled to the village of Dissan in Mali, the epicenter of this research and where Scott has had a three decade relationship with its inhabitants. I was soon overwhelmed by the experience, sense of community, and the potential of this model of sustainable agriculture. I felt compelled to turn these groundbreaking ideas into a film.

I feel that there is something real and relevant to the modern human condition in this unique story of personal and community perseverance in the face of huge environmental, economic, and political challenges. After consulting with the film’s host village and receiving its blessing to share this story with the world, I embarked on completing this intimate documentary film and have since returned to Mali to complete principal photography.

Overall, local farmers like those in Dissan can teach those in more “developed” nations about the potential perils of food security we all will face as a human collective if we do not change how we approach agriculture in the face of climate change and current socioeconomic injustices and systems of greed pertaining to seed production and hierarchical forms of dissemination. Such are lessons that need to be heard and learned from in order to prepare for the future of humankind.

I have had the unique opportunity to have personal access to the key individuals and communities in this film, giving me the chance to capture emotionally charged footage and interviews, as well as yield intimate images of the landscape and daily cadence of life in southern Mali.

-Michael Axtell (aka Yacouba Sangaré)