Farmers of the Sea

Synopsis

Set on the Caribbean island of Vieques, Farmers of the Sea presents the lived realities of climate change through the eyes of artisanal fishers. Pedro Zenón carries on his ancestral tradition of fishing with lobster pots, while Cecilia Morales line-fishes from her local pier, a collective practice shared with friends and family. Director Juan Carlos Dávila weaves their stories together, illuminating complex entanglements of ecological and historical forces. Rising sea temperatures, damaged reefs, and chemical pollution from decades of U.S. military occupation all contribute to dwindling catches, as fish and lobster migrate farther offshore. The film reveals a delicate balance between continuity and change, highlighting the lasting strength of intergenerational relationships even as new forms of scarcity emerge. As the children of Vieques learn to fish with their families, they bring a sense of pride and hope into increasingly uncertain futures.

Director Bio

Born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Juan Carlos Dávila is a documentary filmmaker and multi-media journalist. His work focuses on environmentalism, social movements and globalization. In his professional film work, Juan Carlos has directed two long-length documentary films: Compañeros de lucha (2012) and Vieques: una batalla inconclusa (2016). His documentary filmography also includes the short-documentary film, La generación del estanbai (2016), which won Best National Short Film at Festival Internacional de Cine Fine Arts in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He recently directed a TV pilot for a documentary series called “The Response,” which explores how people rise together in the aftermath of climate disasters. Juan Carlos currently works as a correspondent for Democracy Now!, his journalist work has also been featured in: TeleSur, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, and the Indypendent in New York. He holds a Bachelor in Arts of Communication from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico (2011) and a Master of Arts in Social Documentation from the University of California, Santa Cruz (2015).

Distribution

República 21 Media
Contact: republica21media@gmail.com

 

I’ve always been very constant in my films that I treat community knowledge with the same validity or the same standing as I would treat academic knowledge. Because when you validate community knowledge, you’re also validating ancestral knowledge.