Rosario Dawson. Photo Courtesy of Big Picture Ranch
Rosario Dawson is a world-renowned actress, activist, producer, mother and storyteller. She chatted about narrating the new documentary “Common Ground,” which premiered on June 8 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Dawson narrated this film alongside Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Woody Harrelson, Ian Somerhalder, and Donald Glover.
“Common Ground” was directed by Josh and Rebecca Tickell. They co-produced the film with Eric Dillon, and co-wrote the script along with Johnny O’Hara. Other co-producers included Corinne Bourdeau, Paul Cohen, Ryland Engelhart, Finian Makepeace, Susan Rockefeller, and John Roulac.
Dawson participated in a press conference on June 9 at a Manhattan penthouse, as part of a “Regenerative Luncheon, along with the filmmakers and various noteworthy individuals featured in the movie.
Being a part of ‘Common Ground’
“I am a mom and an ‘actrovist,’ as I would like to say,” Dawson said. “I got to be a part of the ‘Kiss the Ground’ film, and I am really big into documentaries. I think storytelling is our oldest tradition as human beings, and it’s our greatest tradition.”
“I know when people are graced with knowledge and information, and it’s deliberate in a way that is moving and understandable and relational, that we can transform ourselves and the world around us in ways that we couldn’t have imagined otherwise,” she said.
“Like I previously said, I’m an actrovisit,” she reiterated. “A lot of the work that I do and the characters I play, and storytelling that I do are through films/documentaries, but I also do work with an organization. I co-founded a voting organization called Voto Latino when I was 24, and we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary next year.”
Rosario Dawson: The constant storyteller
“I do a lot of storytelling in a lot of different spaces,” Dawson said. “Working in the dirt, soil, and nature is absolutely healing, it’s a tremendous thing. We have been so pulled away from each other and from our nature and it feels like everything that I’m a part of is always trying to understand a myriad of different ways by which we can create community, connection, and be empowered to take it on ourselves,” she elaborated.
“This is what I would want people to get from this film, to actually feel empowered that they can do something about this tremendously overwhelming and overpowering issue,” she acknowledged.
“Also, they might not be able to fix it totally, perfectly, and wholly on their own but together we can make a tremendous impact,” she added.
Rosario Dawson shares what this documentary has taught her
On the lessons she learned from “Common Ground,” Dawson remarked, “I did feel like I’ve have been a lot more comfortable speaking my truth in these last couple of years. Also, just being really intentional and superconscious and stepping into the uncomfortable.”
“When I saw an earlier version of this film, I wanted to feel more included, and I wanted the people that I would show this movie to feel more included, so we had some really amazing conversations and they had it there. It was really beautiful,” she said.
Dawson continued, “What is so beautiful about the work that they are doing and have been doing is that we had a dialogue that we can speak into, and it has been great to grow with them. We grew into this partnership, and we deepened it through the experiences of this film, and that makes me really happy.
“I am a huge fan of preaching to the choir, sometimes we need to be reminded what we are doing and to not get too caught up in routine, and we need to be uncomfortable sometimes, and I think great things come from that,” she concluded.
Kiss The Ground, the nonprofit organization
Kiss the Ground, the non-profit organization was the core inspiration of “Common Ground” and the previous namesake movie as well as a huge part of building this global movement through education, storytelling as well as advocacy.
Their advocacy campaign, “Regenerate America,” is helping to re-write the farm bill this year with over 120 NGOs, businesses, and farm groups and working with all the farmers in the film.
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