CHATHAM — FilmColumbia 2023 came to a close Sunday with the screening of the documentary “Gaining Ground: The Fight For Black Land” directed by Al Roker.
Roker, one of the hosts of the “Today Show,” has a home in Canaan.
“It’s a growing county,” Roker said. “When you think of Columbia County, everyone talks about Hudson. What’s great about Chatham is that it’s a small town, but it’s a small town that has a lot of folks that are really invested in it. They believe in this place. A lot of folks here like to see different types of films, not just the Hollywood blockbusters, but documentaries, both foreign and domestic. There are very few places outside New York City where you can see something like this. This is exciting.”
Columbia County is becoming a destination county for artists and filmmakers. FilmColumbia is just one of the highlights, Roker said.
“I think what’s great about the film festival is it started out as the Little Festival That Could, and now is this really well-respected festival,” Roker said. “To be part of this, especially closing weekend, is really exciting.”
“Gaining Ground” takes a deep dive into the plight African Americans had to endure at the turn of the 20th century when it came to fighting and keeping their land.
“At the turn of the last century, 14% of American farmers were Black, and they owned over 16 million acres of farmland across the country,” according to the film’s narration. “Thanks to White violence and legal seizures, most of those farms, valued at an estimated $326 million, were lost. Now, Black farmers are battling against overwhelming odds to reclaim land that is rightfully theirs.”
After the screening, Roker talked about those losses in both human and financial terms.
“‘Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land” focuses on the fact that Black farmers are becoming extinct,” Roker said. “In 1920, there were 20 million acres of Black-owned farmland, and now it’s down to only 2 million. The idea behind this film is to explore why this is happening and what we can do to change that.”
Roker said that during the early part of last century, Black farmers could create wealth.
“As they took parcels of land that weren’t considered advantageous, it made them profitable,” Roker said. “There were White folks that wanted their property. Through either legal or illegal means, the Black farmers’ property was taken from them. Environments down in the South weren’t hospitable environments for African Americans. Then the great migration happened, and people abandoned property to move to the Northeast, the Midwest and further west.”
Despite the current challenges faced by African American farmers, such as intrafamily land disputes and the financial responsibilities that come with owning a farm, Roker said there are organizations that can help, including the National Black Food and Justice Alliance, Black Urban Growers Association and Soil Generation.
“I want people to take away from the film that there are organizations that can help, not only farm owners but property owners,” Roker said. “There’s a problem from New York City to Los Angeles to Hudson, N.Y., where Black families have property, and they don’t have proper wills. Suddenly, someone dies, or someone wants to sell a piece of property, then everyone wants to sell it. We just want people to know that this is happening and that there are organizations that help them.”