‘Roots of Resilience' documentary supports fight food insecurity against in East Knoxville
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — To kick off Black History Month, a local collective held a documentary premiere at Central Cinema to highlight their fight to eliminate food insecurity in East Knoxville.
'We are in the business of not only recreating but reclaiming and restoring what was here in east Knoxville,' said Femeika Elliot, Rooted East Knoxville Collective co-founder.
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In their new documentary, 'Roots of Resilience: East Knoxville's Black Food Renaissance,' the Rooted East Knoxville Collective chose to highlight the voices of East Knoxville elders, learning from their stories how to restore access to healthy fresh produce.
'There's not anything really digitally that's owned by community, that's housed in community, telling the stories of our foodways in our green spaces of East Knoxville prior to urban renewal,' said Elliot. 'So, we sat down with our elders, sat down with community members, our home garden participants, stakeholders in our community to assess and amplify their voices.'
Through their documentary, they hope to educate the community about how green spaces were used in the past and bring those practices back to East Knoxville.
'We believe that Sankofa is really important, which means going back and getting it or going back and fetching traditions and history, and we have to learn from our history in order to move sustainably and move forward,' said Elliot.
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As a collective, they hope to restore food access by bringing back community gardens and distributing fresh produce to the community.
'We are establishing — reestablishing, really, community sufficiency. So, we teach food pathways, more so focusing on gardening education, getting those that has that have been historically disenfranchised back to the land,' said Elliot.
Through education in land stewardship and gardening, she said they hope to bring the power of growing your own food back to people, regardless of your zip code.
'It also feels great that people are taking an active interest in their health, in their overall wellness, in their intrigue and just trying to get back to learning those skill sets that we used to have,' said Elliot.
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Any ticket sales from their documentary screening went towards their effort to bring gardening back to east Knoxville. Elliot said they have not shared the documentary online yet, but hope to soon, and urge those interested in upcoming screenings to follow their social media, or check out their website to learn how to get involved in their program.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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