American Soil

Written by Stevie Walker-Webb, Directed by Jovani Lugo, Lili Stiefel, and Stevie Walker-Webb. 2020.

Set in a fictional town in Texas on the border of Mexico, American Soil investigates the phenomenon of farmlands being sold to foreign investors as small farms foil in a flailing economy. The story centers on the Copper Family Watermelon Farm and its demise as the last American-owned farming land. Mama Copper, the family Matriarch, has informed her three estranged children that they must help save the farm, or forfeit their inheritance. In this archetypal comedy, a surrealist underworld of watermelons comes to life to protest the destruction of their land. American Soil brings to light what it means to re-colonize a stolen land.