Synopsis
The Mother Grain is a documentary film about the rapid rise in the popularity of quinoa, with a focus on the lives and methods of the local Aymara and Quechua Bolivian farmers, who are descended from the Incas. Their Incan ancestors grew quinoa in the same region of the Andes Mountains as their descendants do today, and treated the grain with religious reverence. Even though the Spanish Conquistadors of the 16th Century suppressed quinoa growth, its cultivation and place of honor in isolated native communities continued until the present day. As the international consumption of quinoa rises. The Mother Grain looks at how this increasing demand is affecting quinoa farmers. Bear Witness Pictures traveled to the Bolivian quinoa-growing communities surrounding the world's largest salt flat, the Salar de Uyuni, witnessing their lives first-hand to tell the story of quinoa from the perspective of the farmers themselves.