Tillage & Fury is a portrait of anger as a product of Black ecology. This essay-film explores the eco-geography of rice cultivation and the life cycle of the fly, both of which are indelibly linked to Black life. Anger is used to trace the lineage of rice, from the transatlantic slave trade to the 2022 rice shortage in Liberia. Anger is manifested in the connection between colonialism and larvae. Liberia is a country that cultivated its own rice just over a century ago and due to colonialism (agricultural colonialism and plantation economies) has reached a point where its main source of food, Rice, is scarce. Being Liberian-American, this shortage affected a significant percentage of my family that still lives and works in Liberia.
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Written, Directed, & Edited by Leila Weefur
Animation by Tuğçe Evirgen Özmen
Music by Yari Bundy
Featuring: Deya Guy-Vasson, Hannah Beck, Sam Genovese, Kevin McCoy, Alene Deyein, Cecil Weefur
Crew: Sandy Williams IV, Mariana Parisca, Perrin Turner