Life After Water
Life After Water is a nine minute short film depicting the increased stress being placed on farmers in the American West in the wake of increasingly frequent droughts. The film follows Jesus Ramos—an orange farmer in California’s Central Valley—who explains how water shortages threaten his family’s livelihood, food production, and the future of farming alike. Jesus’s family is not alone in this struggle for livelihood, as it is noted that drought-produced problems continue to plague farmers throughout the region. Jesus’s story suggests that it is not just farmers who are under threat, but the livelihood of the entire food-dependent country. As Jesus contemplates a lifestyle without his fields, Life After Water necessitates viewers to contemplate themes of agriculture, water use and food security—and the role of sustainability in conjunction with each.