At the 5Point Adventure Film Festival in Carbondale, one documentary spotlights the value and fragility of agriculture in Colorado.
It’s titled “Mirasol: Looking at the Sun,” and it spotlights a community of generational family farms in Pueblo. At the heart of the film is a retired research scientist, and third-generation farmer, who helped propagate the Pueblo chile.
“I don't think we would have a film without Mike Bartolo,” said director Ben Knight. “He's the person that is fighting for that place. … He's the one that knows every farmer, and has an amazing relationship with everyone in the valley.”
Bartolo, for his part, thought he’d be more involved behind the scenes, connecting the filmmakers to other sources. But it’s clear, in the film and in conversation over the phone, that he’s passionate about the relationship between communities and agriculture.
Bartolo believes that connection is vital — and at risk, as people become more and more separated from the sources of their food.
“I think when we disconnect from our ability to understand where food comes from, we're losing a lot,” Bartolo said. “And it's a lot of things that really sustain us as human beings and our understanding and our reverence and respect for the land.”
In order to maintain that sense of understanding and respect, Bartolo said communities have to advocate for the preservation of natural resources, like land and water.
“People ask me why agriculture uses 80-plus percent of the water in Colorado, and I say, ‘no, … anybody that eats, uses 80% of the water,’” Bartolo said. “People don't often understand that, you know, it takes a lot of water to grow plants.”
It’s one of the themes in “Mirasol,” which also considers the economic challenges farmers face and the pushback from people who see more opportunity in urban development than agriculture.
“Eventually, we're going to have to come to some kind of impasse. … Do we want to have all this growth and sprawl? Or do we really want to protect certain things that we find value in?” he said.
Bartolo recognizes that change won’t be easy. But to him, it’s something worth fighting for.
“I always say, some of the best meals I ever had in my life were… because I knew where that food came from, and the hard work and the labor that it took to grow it, and the risks, and the extreme sacrifices it took to bring that crop and that food to the table,” Bartolo said.
Mirasol screens Saturday morning at the Carbondale Rec Center, for the “Changemakers” film program at 5Point.
