Doc Impact Award Winners 2016 from BRITDOC Foundation on Vimeo.
In news that was as richly deserved as it was eagerly anticipated, the BRITDOC Foundation today announced the five winners of its annual documentary Impact Award, and Food Chains, the film that chronicles the evolution of the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food and the birth of the Fair Food Program, was one of the five big winners!
Joining other great films including 2015 Oscar-winner Citizen Four and the gripping documentary out of the Congo on the fight to save the world’s last mountain gorillas, Virunga, Food Chains was recognized for its positive, measurable impact on the struggle of farmworkers here in Florida to protect and advance their fundamental human rights. Food Chains director Sanjay Rawal, in a message to the film’s fans released upon receiving news of the award, wrote:
We are so thrilled to announce that FOOD CHAINS won the prestigious DOC IMPACT AWARD from the BritDoc Foundation this year!
We couldn’t have achieved this without the support and dedication of each and every one of you.
From our theatrical launch in November 2014 onward, we marched together with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in their fight against Publix, Wendy’s and Kroger; we hosted discussions on campuses and with Fair Food Program signatories like Bon Appetit Management Corporation, Whole Foods and Compass Group; we raised money and our voices for farmworker rights; we flexed our buying power – and we saw the effect this had on companies like Giant and Stop and Shop.
This award is for the farmworkers of America – it’s for low-wage workers around the world – it’s for all of us.
He wrapped up his message with this request:
Help us celebrate the farmworkers! TWEET THIS TODAY AND SHARE THE GRAPHIC BELOW.
Our most heartfelt congratulations go out to Sanjay, Executive Producer Smriti Keshari, and the whole Food Chains team. Their hard work and unwavering dedication to making human rights real in the fields by telling the story of our struggle here in Immokalee raised the awareness of countless consumers about the shameful farm labor conditions that have existed for generations in this country’s agricultural industry. But more than that, Food Chains helped change the lives of tens of thousands of farmworkers for the better, adding new impetus to the establishment and expansion of the CIW’s groundbreaking Fair Food Program here in Florida and in states along the East Coast from Georgia to New Jersey.
Every great story needs a great storyteller. The story of the fight for Fair Food got its storyteller in the team behind Food Chains, and today Food Chains got the recognition it so thoroughly deserved.