Fields Of Trees

Production Co: TVE
Producer : Robert Lamb
Director : Bruno Sorrentino

Year: 1995

Genre: Documentary

Region: Indonesia, Uganda, Zambia

Duration: 30’ & 15’

Language: English

Traditional farming in the topics has never respected the division between `field’ and `tree’.  Shaking off the colonial inheritance, a quiet revolution is underway to merge age-old practices with scientific know-how.  Agro-forestry techniques aim to combine the best of both - advantages Bruno Sorrentino’s film shows that poor farmers are quick to discover.  The callendra bushes Goretti Muhoozi plants along the edges of his steep hillside fields in Uganda prevent soil erosion; the trees Jennifer Zulu grows on her Zambian farm revive tired land and provide firewood; settlers in Peru’s low land jungle learn about forest harvesting techniques; while, in Indonesia, bureaucrats argue over whether a Sumatran farmer’s intricate `forest garden’ is a forest or a farm.  A more technical 15-minute version of the film, “Farming With Trees”, is designed to help agro-forestry extension workers.