Pastorxs en Resistencia. El oficio hoy en Cataluña is an ethnographic documentary produced by Rincones Recorridos, filmed between September and December 2022 in Barcelona and Girona. It tells the story of a shepherdess and three shepherds who fight to continue with the profession of pastor despite the political and economic impediments of the society in which they live and how bureaucracy and public policies affect their profession.
Pastorxs en Resistencia draws on broader ethnographic research on the conditions of extensive and semi-extensive livestock farming. It is part of the project “Subsistence strategies, neoliberalism and environmental values: Short chains of food production and distribution” Financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. FJC2020-042879-I. Postdoctoral researcher: Paula ESCRIBANO Coordinator: Susana NAROTZKY.
By accompanying Clara, Fran, Dirk and Guillem with their goats and sheep we discovered the problems of the generational change of grazing and the danger of disappearance of this practice linked to the care of animals and forests. We travel through mountains, valleys and forests among goats and sheep to understand the fine line that separates the validity of the art of shepherding from its risk of disappearance. Despite its multiple benefits for environmental conservation and social sustainability, the profession of shepherd currently finds itself with an almost impossible adaptation to the standards proposed by a paradigm adapted to the industrial production of meat and derived products.
With a preview on October 14 in Bohoyo, Avila, the documentary will be presented in The Hague and in social centers and theaters in Barcelona. The information will be conveyed through the project’s Instagram @rinconesrecorridos.
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEDlSArQ7LY
On October 24 (2023) at 12 noon, the author will present at the Migration Seminar — International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam (La Haya, Netherlands) — the presentation “Displacing shepherds: social and geographical (im)mobilities in Catalonia (Spain) during and after the COVID-19 pandemic”. The presentation will be supported by fragments of the documentary.
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