Synopsis

A Mexican-American teenager dreams of graduating high school, when increased ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become the breadwinner for her family. She works long days in the strawberry fields and the night shift at a food processing factory. Set in an agricultural town on the central coast of California, FRUITS OF LABOR is a coming of age story about an American teenager traversing the seen and unseen forces that keep her family trapped in poverty.  A lyrical meditation on adolescence, nature and ancestral forces, the film asks, what does it mean to come into one’s power as a working young woman of color in the wealthiest nation in the world?
 

There is the path of nature and our ancestors. There is the path of money and machines. You must choose the path to follow.

Perspective

Fruits of Labor is a character driven account that explores universal themes of how a young woman navigates family obligation and the desire to pursue her dreams in the predicaments of our times. In Ashley’s case her dream is to be the first in her family to graduate high school and go to college. From Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Are Watching God to Aurora Guerrero’s film Mosquita y Mari, women artists have called attention to the daily oppressions and personal desires of women; the political is expressed in the private intimacies of falling in love, the burdens of domestic life, and the desire for personal freedom and dignity.

Most documentary films about farmworkers look at public personas–the political is in the rally, the strike, and the public speech. Fruits of Labor offers a new narrative about women workers that shows the nuances of how the global food system intersects with gender and family life.