Directors: Gustavo Anselmi David Kohan, Production: Río Azul Films, Landia Content, Río Paraná, Country: Argentina and USA Language: English, Spanish, 75′, 2022, Rights: World
“Trimmigrant (s) US, slang for a migrant worker who harvests marijuana”
Trimmigrants: Searching for the green gold, is an intimate look at the migrants or so-called trimmigrants who are joining the gold rush of our era to pick the green gold of cannabis in Northern California. Gustavo and David, the first an actor auditioning for roles and the latter an unemployed soon-to-be homeless commercial director from Argentina, go to search for their luck as many others from all over the world in the so-called Emerald triangle.
The two decide to make a film about their experiences. A candid portrait shedding light on the little-seen dark side of a global industry. Through filming, throughout their three-year stint as trimmigrants, they build a portrait of an industry and its people the workers and cannabis farmers, distributors, sometimes hiding their faces and no names are mentu. It is a troubled picture of drug-fuelled and underpaid illegal workers who do not have basic worker’s rights. And as Asian cheaper and less opinionated workers start to come in the job opportunities for the other workers who demand better conditions dries up. As one man puts it it is like modern-day slavery. And why are there so many reports of missing persons, in Humboldt county more than 700 missing people per year, the area has been dubbed murder mountain. As investigated in the 2018 Netflix series Murder Mountain.
The workers, make the journey to harvest time because they know they can make good money—up to about $300 per day, but there are downsides which the documentary shows up close, as they had unfettered access to the cannabis picking farms.
Not everyone is in it for the money many of the pickers and farmers do it because it is a passion they believe in the healing miraculous properties of cannabis.
What is the future for these cannabis farms and the trimmigrants when big pharma wants to invest in this medicinal cannabis?
Festivals
2022 World premiere at Festival Internacional de Cine de las Alturas
In collaboration with Punctum Sales
