Join us for a screening and discussion of A Thousand Pines, a 2023 documentary about a crew of 12 Mexican tree planters that travel the United States regrowing America’s forests. Follow Raymundo Morales as he leads a crew of workers who have to make the challenging decision to leave their families in rural Mexico to plant commercial pine forests in the United States. This tale of labor and family shines a light on the precarity of temporary work visas.

The film's director, Noam Osband, will join us via Zoom for a Q&A following the screening.

This event is free and open to the public.

This event is sponsored by the UMN Forestry Club and the Department of Forest Resources DEI Committee. 

Synopsis

A Thousand Pines shows the lives of migrants who depend on the controversial guest worker visa program, following a crew of workers from Oaxaca, Mexico, over the course of a season planting trees throughout the United States. The crew struggles to balance the job’s physical demands and its extreme isolation while remaining connected to their families back home. As the season progresses, they become a small family, cooking and caring for each other in order to endure the punishing work. The film centers on the crew foreman, Raymundo Morales, who is in his 19th season working for the largest reforestation company in the US. When he began, he was single and had few responsibilities. Now, however, he must balance his obligations to his wife, his children, and his elderly mother with a heart condition, while also tending to the needs and emergencies of the planting crew. Spending only three months at home during the off-season, Raymundo’s job is both the family’s salvation and its heartbreak.

Trailer

Film Bios

Noam Osbannd: The director and producer of  A Thousand Pines is a filmmaker, radio producer, and anthropologist based in San Francisco. His first feature, Adelante, a documentary about Mexican immigration to Philadelphia, screened on over 20 PBS affiliates, played at over 30 festivals, and was screened at over 40 colleges. He is also a radio and print journalist, with bylines and credits including The Atlantic, BBC4, Criminal, and more. Following the April 11 screening, Osbannd will join us for a Q&A via Zoom.

Raymundo Morales : The crew foreman, he is returning for his 20th year of planting. When he started, he was young and single; now he leaves behind a wife, three kids, and an ailing mother with a heart condition. His father passed away while he was planting in the United States, and he wonders if the same thing might happen this season with his mother. 

Rodolfo Morales: Raymundo's cousin, he is coming to the USA for his first year of planting. Before leaving, he promised his partner they will marry if he can earn enough to pay off the debts they incurred due to an emergency C-section for his young daughter's delivery. 

Juan Garcia : Another rookie planter, he has decided to plant trees in order to raise money for a clothing store he wants to open, but a foot injury suffered early in the season puts those plans in peril.

Directions and Parking

Green Hall room 110
2005 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN 55113

• Campus map
• Parking: Paid parking is available in lot 106, located directly behind Green Hall.