The 4th Annual Youth Storytellers Field to Film Festival is inviting young people from smallholder, rural, and Indigenous farming families to document how their communities are transforming food systems through agroecology.
The festival runs until March 12 and is part of Groundswell International’s Youth Storyteller Program.
In honor of the United Nations’ International Year of the Woman Farmer, the 2026 festival places a special emphasis on the central role of women farmers in rural food systems. “Many of the female youth who participate in this program play many roles,” Groundswell International Program Director Rebecca Wolff tells Food Tank. “While they are youth, they are also parents, entrepreneurs, farmers, or students, responsible for the wellbeing of their families and land.”
The program and festival began in 2021, and originally included four partner organizations across Ecuador, Burkina Faso, Nepal, and Honduras. It has since expanded to engage nearly 500 youth participants and create over 50 nonfiction and fiction short films. The program now includes 11 partner groups across Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that women farmers, especially young women, face more precarious working conditions, heavier workloads, and less equitable access to resources than their male counterparts.
Justine Natama, a filmmaker from Burkina Faso, will present “Women’s Access to Resources: A Lever for Agroecology and Sustainability,” the film she developed through the Youth Storyteller Program.
Melissa López, a youth Honduran filmmaker, explores similar intersections of gender and agriculture in her work. “At the local level, I would like people to value the work done by rural women,” she tells Food Tank.
Youth also face significant challenges in the rural agrifood sector. According to the FAO, nearly 85 percent of global youth live in low- and lower-middle-income countries where agrifood systems are essential to their livelihoods. And although 44 percent of working young people rely on agrifood systems for employment, compared to 38 percent of working adults, youth perspectives are rarely centered in stories about agriculture.
“Centering youth voices is also a matter of justice. The next generation is inheriting food systems that deplete landscapes, harm health, and deepen inequality,” Maylis MouBarak, Groundswell International’s Storytelling and Communications Manager, tells Food Tank. “Including rural youth in these conversations is essential. They bring firsthand experience of what works on the ground and can help identify and scale solutions that are relevant not only to their own communities, but to broader efforts to build food systems that work for people and the planet.”
The Youth Storyteller Program equips participants to effectively share these stories. Youth filmmakers receive equipment, ongoing support, and long-term training from local consultants and professional storytellers, covering interviewing, filming, editing, and narrative development. Creative control remains entirely in their hands. The filmmakers are also able to deepen their knowledge and understanding of their agency in food and agriculture systems.
“Initially I used to think agriculture meant farming in large areas, huge production and not suitable for marginal farmers,” Saroj Upadhyaya, a storyteller and filmmaker from Nepal, tells Food Tank. “But when I visited farmers during the YST [Youth Storyteller] video shooting, I saw people practicing agriculture on their own, raising three to four goats in small spaces nearby their house, maintaining kitchen gardens, and getting healthy nutritious foods year-round.”
Youth Storyteller Program participant and Nepali filmmaker Bimala Shrestha shares similar insights. Through the filmmaking process, she discovered the human health benefits of botanical pesticides and natural farming practices.
For others showing their work in this year’s Field to Film Festival, the process is an affirmation of their existence in farming and storytelling. “As a young girl, I used to think that photojournalism and fieldwork were jobs for men,” says Justine Natama. “Today, I am proud to prove the opposite.”
The Field to Film Festival’s short films are available to livestream and watch here.
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Photo courtesy of Groundswell International
Facts Only
The 4th Annual Youth Storytellers Field to Film Festival runs until March 12, 2026.
The festival is part of Groundswell International’s Youth Storyteller Program.
It invites young people from smallholder, rural, and Indigenous farming families to document agroecology transformations.
The 2026 festival emphasizes the role of women farmers, aligning with the U.N.’s International Year of the Woman Farmer.
The program began in 2021 with partners in Ecuador, Burkina Faso, Nepal, and Honduras.
It has expanded to 11 partner groups across Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti.
Nearly 500 youth participants have created over 50 short films.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reports that young women farmers face precarious conditions and unequal resource access.
Justine Natama, a filmmaker from Burkina Faso, presents a film on women’s access to resources in agroecology.
Melissa López, a Honduran filmmaker, explores gender and agriculture in her work.
The program provides equipment, training, and support in filming, editing, and storytelling.
Saroj Upadhyaya from Nepal documented small-scale farming practices like kitchen gardens.
Bimala Shrestha from Nepal discovered health benefits of natural farming practices through filmmaking.
The festival’s films are available for livestream.
Executive Summary
The 4th Annual Youth Storytellers Field to Film Festival, running until March 12, 2026, is part of Groundswell International’s Youth Storyteller Program. It invites young people from smallholder, rural, and Indigenous farming families to document how their communities are transforming food systems through agroecology. This year’s festival emphasizes the role of women farmers, aligning with the United Nations’ International Year of the Woman Farmer. The program, which began in 2021 with four partner organizations in Ecuador, Burkina Faso, Nepal, and Honduras, has expanded to include 11 partner groups across Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti, engaging nearly 500 youth participants and producing over 50 short films.
The initiative highlights the challenges faced by young women farmers, including precarious working conditions, heavier workloads, and unequal access to resources. Participants like Justine Natama from Burkina Faso and Melissa López from Honduras use filmmaking to explore gender and agriculture, while others, such as Saroj Upadhyaya and Bimala Shrestha from Nepal, document sustainable farming practices like kitchen gardens and natural pesticides. The program provides training in storytelling, filming, and editing, empowering youth to share their perspectives on food systems. The festival’s films are available for livestream, offering a platform for rural youth to showcase their work and challenge stereotypes about farming and storytelling.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative centers on empowering rural youth, particularly young women, to document and reshape food systems through storytelling. It highlights systemic inequities—such as unequal resource access for women farmers—and positions youth as agents of change, not passive beneficiaries. The program’s expansion and the diversity of voices it amplifies are commendable, as is its focus on agroecology as a solution to environmental and social challenges.
However, the narrative leans heavily on emotional appeals—celebrating resilience and challenging stereotypes—without critically examining potential limitations. For instance, while the program equips youth with storytelling tools, it doesn’t address structural barriers like land ownership or policy gaps that perpetuate inequality. The emphasis on "centering youth voices" as a matter of justice is compelling, but it risks framing storytelling as a panacea without acknowledging the broader political and economic forces shaping food systems.
Root cause: This narrative reflects a growing trend of "participatory media" as a tool for social change, assuming that visibility and representation can drive systemic shifts. It echoes historical movements where marginalized groups used art and storytelling to reclaim agency, but it may underestimate the inertia of entrenched power structures.
Implications: The program’s focus on youth and women farmers could shift narratives about agriculture, but its impact depends on whether these stories reach policymakers and resource holders. The second-order consequence is the potential commodification of rural voices—where storytelling becomes a performative act rather than a catalyst for material change.
Bridge questions: How might this program measure success beyond film production—e.g., policy changes or resource redistribution? What perspectives from older generations or male farmers are missing from this narrative? Would the program’s approach differ if it centered on urban youth or industrial agriculture?
Counterstrike scan: A bad actor pushing this narrative might weaponize emotional storytelling to deflect from systemic critiques, framing youth empowerment as sufficient without addressing root causes. However, the actual content aligns more with genuine advocacy than manipulation, as it explicitly names structural inequities and avoids simplistic solutions.
Patterns detected: none
Sentinel — Human
While the text does not show strong signs of synthetic content, it maintains a natural rhythm, expresses a personal perspective, and lacks an overly structured argumentative framework, suggesting it is likely human-written.