California Ag TODAY: FIGHT FOR WATER FILM IN FRESNO

The Fight for Water Film: A Farm Worker Struggle is the "Official Selection" at the Viña de Oro Film Festival, which will be taking place October 16 - 19 at the historic Tower Theatre. The festival will close with the documentary on Oct. 19 at 6pm.

Tickets can be bought at the door or in advance. For more information they can call the Viña de Oro Film Festival at 559-492-7878.

The Fight For Water Film documents the struggle of two farmers, and thousands of farm workers on the Westside, Fresno County, in 2009 when there was only a 10 percent water allocation.

Filmmaker/Director Juan Carlos Oseguera focuses on the 50-mile historic water march in his film, the only film that documents this journey that brought more than 1,000 farmers and farm workers from all over the state.

The film also records the many food lines that became necessary in towns such as Firebaugh, Mendota, San Joaquin and Huron. Farmworkers, though humiliated, were forced to resort to these food lines due to the high unemployment that reached in excess of 40 percent as a consequence of the non-irrigated fields.

Ironically, though The Fight For Water Film documents this event in 2009 and 2010, nothing has changed. In fact, farmers in the Westside Federal Water Districts are currently facing what could be an even worse year in 2014. The Bureau of Reclamation has warned that if there is not significantly more than average rain and snowfall this winter, there could be an unprecedented zero allocation.

No water allocation may force many farmers out of business and cause massive unemployment in the Westside communities already suffering from severely reduced water allocations. This season, farmers received only 20 percent of what they needed and paid for.

Oseguera said, “I have found that Californians outside of the Central Valley, and Americans out of state, are unaware of the plight of farmers and farmworkers here. So, we need to expand distribution of the film to educate everybody.”

“There is growing interest from film distributors to advance the film to wider audiences,” said Oseguera. “A good way to tell the distributors that the film needs to be seen by others outside of California is to like the Fight For Water Facebook page,” he noted.