Cotton For My Shroud – Film showing London 26 May

Date for your diary – book now!

You are invited to a unique free screening of this award-winning film (India, 2011, 75 min), together with a Q&A session with the directors, Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl with John Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want.

The film raises the issue about Monsanto's drive to market GM seeds and establish a monopoly in the seed market.

Date: Tuesday 26th of May 2015

Time: Doors open at 7.00 Screening at 7.15 and the programme finishes at 9.30pm

Venue: First Floor, Conference Centre, Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln Inn Field, London WC2A 3LJ

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrZpjbcGXK0

This is a story about cotton farmers in the Vidarbha region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The film investigates how Monsanto, in collusion with the government and politicians, promoted genetically modified Bt Cotton field trials amongst farmers. This was accompanied by propaganda about high yields and reduction in pesticide use.

Vulnerable farmers were enticed to take out loans in order to pay for the GM seeds and the exorbitant prices of pesticides and fertilisers. They found themselves trapped in heavy debt to the money lenders on the one side, with cotton merchants manipulating prices downwards on the other.

With poor yields and high costs, many farmers found themselves with a mountain of debt that they could never hope to repay. In despair, the only way out they could see was to put an end to their lives by drinking pesticide, leaving behind widows and orphans.

A quarter of million farmers have committed suicide in India. If we had a comparable number of middle class professionals committing suicide, the world would not be silent. The film depicts a heartless world where capital and its sibling debt kills daily.

Book your place with Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cotton-for-my-shroud-screening-plus-qa-with-film-directors-tickets-16753726848