‘Pistachio Wars’ Rowan Wernham and Journalist Yasha Levine Takes a Deep Dive Into California’s Water Crisis – Trailer

Journalist Yasha Levine leads the charge alongside filmmaker Rowan Wernham into investigating the truth behind California’s current water crisis, as well as looking into how corporations allowed this to happen, in the documentary Pistachio Wars.

With Levine and Wernham as directors, and award-winning writer-director-producer Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) as executive producer, the doc releases digitally on November 7th, with screenings in different cities to be announced at a later date.

Pistachio Wars made its debut at the Doc Edge Film Festival where it was a finalist for Best New Zealand Film, and won for Best New Zealand Emerging Filmmaker with Wernham. Its international premiere was during the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival where it also won an award for Best Film on Knowledge. Pistachio Wars was also present at the DOC LA Film Festival, where it placed as an awards finalist. The film’s official North American premiere occurred at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival.

Everyone has surely heard of Wonderful-branded Pistachios by this point. The aggressive marketing campaigns throughout the past decade has solidified them as a mainstay snack food. However, not everyone knows what truly goes on in the underbelly of the pistachio industry, and California’s agriculture industry as a whole.

Here is the synopsis:

Journalist Yasha Levine follows a lead on a water sale between a farmer and a small desert town – and discovers a hidden side to California’s healthy snack industry.

At the center of the story are Stewart and Lynda Resnick. They’re billionaires. They live in the flashiest mansion in Beverly Hills, have a monopoly on the pistachio trade, and have branded themselves as ‘The Wonderful Company,’ which now uses more water each year than the entire city of Los Angeles.

With Academy Award-winning writer, director, producer Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) as Executive Producer, this investigative documentary from Journalist Yasha Levine and Filmmaker Rowan Wernham uncovers the environmental devastation caused by industrial agriculture and water mismanagement, the ties to the oil industry, including the use of chemically tainted wastewater for crop irrigation, and the massive lobbying efforts aimed at deregulating water and silencing environmental protections. The film also uncovers a shocking connection to U.S. foreign policy, including alliances with influential policy groups that have pushed for war with Iran — a direct competitor in the global pistachio trade.

It’s a road trip into the dark heart of the American Dream.

“The people who first settled California thought they could re-engineer the landscape without understanding the interconnectedness of the world,” Wernham says in an interview done with Film Fest Report for the film’s Doc Edge premiere. “Now, we have a more sophisticated awareness, but it’s hard to resist corporate entities that make a lot of money and have the resources to influence politics and public perception.”

Watch the trailer for Pistachio Wars above.