CWC Docs: Pistachio Wars

Pistachio Wars (2024) follows journalist Yasha Levine as he investigates a small-town water deal and uncovers a hidden side of California’s health-food industry. At the center is the agricultural empire of America’s wealthiest farmers, Stewart and Lynda Resnick of the Wonderful Company (Wonderful Pistachios, POM Wonderful, and Fiji Water) . These billionaires dominate California’s pistachio industry, but more importantly, own much of the state’s water, more than the entire city of Los Angeles. The Resnicks’ desert plantations have drained rivers, disrupted ecosystems, and polluted water quality for many communities throughout the state. To frame the story of the Resnicks, filmmakers Levine and Wernham trace how California built its water system in ways that ultimately enabled big agribusiness to command control. Pistachio Wars reveals how the hidden world of industrial agriculture fuels the state’s growing climate injustices, from worsening droughts to increasingly destructive megafires. Filmmakers Yasha Levine and Rowan Wernham joined moderator Rich Farrell (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Pistachio Wars. Yasha Levine is an investigative journalist, podcaster, and filmmaker. His work has been featured in Wired, Slate, and The Nation. He has covered California politics for almost two decades and is the author of Surveillance Valley, a book about the forgotten military history of the Internet. He runs the popular Nefarious Russians newsletter. Levine is currently producing Inheritance, a horror feature film directed by Evgenia Kovda. Rowan Wernham is a New Zealand-born designer and filmmaker. Pistachio Wars, his debut feature, premiered at Doc Edge, where Wernham was awarded the prize for “Best New Zealand Emerging Filmmaker.” His experimental animated short x.o.genesis screened at numerous festivals, including Slamdance, Maryland, and Glasgow, and was a prize winner at the LA New Wave Film Festival. Rich Farrell is a PhD candidate in Film and Media Studies and Graduate Student Researcher with the Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara. His research interests include documentary media studies, US environmental history and the environmental humanities, and film history. His dissertation critically examines the New Deal motion picture cultures of the National Park Service, Forest Service, and Civilian Conservation Corps. This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center. The Carsey-Wolf Center is committed to screening documentaries from across the world that engage with contemporary and historical issues, especially regarding social justice and environmental concerns. Documentaries allow filmmakers to address pressing issues and frame the critical debates of our time.