Jonathan B
Packed with great information and storytelling! Stunning visuals, amazing narration, clear explanations. This movie is sobering, practical, hopeful and inspiring, all at the same time. Ill be watching it again!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
12/08/23
Full Review
Heather
Finally, a movie that doesnt just tell us everything weve done to destroy our planet with ominous warnings of doom if we dont do something to change but a thoughtful, easy to understand, well laid out and clear SOLUTION. This film should be played in every high school in the country.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
10/11/23
Full Review
Isaiah A
Gabe Brown stands between two fields. To his left is a vast expanse of lifeless dirt. To his right, a sprawling field of perennial pastures and verdant trees. On his neighbor’s plot, wind has eroded away the healthy topsoil, leaving the ground desolate and bare. On his own land, a line of trees and robust crops ensure that the soil holds firm. The difference between these two fields – industrial farming versus regenerative soil management – could decide the fate of humanity.
Before discovering this film, I, like many others, had no concept of the severity with which conventional agriculture damages our health and our environment. Common Ground reveals how agro-industrial chemicals and tillage damage the microbial biome in the soil and reduce the nutritional content of the food we grow. What’s more, carcinogenic chemicals leach into our food, damaging our health and the health of future generations.
While at first this news shocked and disheartened me, the film soon revealed how the very methods that made Gabe Brown’s field green even while his neighbor’s land remained desolate are the same methods that do away with harmful tillage and chemicals. These soil-healthy practices include growing cover crops and conducting managed grazing with livestock. By working in tandem with nature, rather than against it, these methods ensure that strong, healthy plants grow to feed strong, healthy humans. Collectively known as regenerative agriculture, this soil-conscious approach to farming not only prevents the loss of the soils we need to feed the world, but also draws carbon out of the atmosphere, mitigating and even reversing the adverse effects of climate change! The documentary reveals how, if embraced on a large enough scale, regeneration might make the difference between ecological disaster and human flourishing.
Longtime eco-documentarians Joshua and Rebecca Tickell bring together an all-star team of soil health advocates and celebrities. Familiar faces such as Rosario Dawson, Jason Momoa, and Laura Dern, whose sobering narrations paint a harrowing yet impassioned picture of how we can change. Meanwhile, down-to-earth farmers like Rick Clark, Glenn Elzinga, and Alejandro Carillo deliver first-hand experience implementing these methods, and reaping benefits both ecological and financial. The Tickells do an impeccable job balancing a diverse collection of voices, channeling them all into one beautiful and harmonious call to action. Before seeing this film, I was prone to despair for the future of our planet. But after seeing how regeneration has healed places like Salmon Idaho and Chihuahua Mexico, it’s difficult not to imagine how great a difference we can make if we act now.
This is a film I will definitely be revisiting again as a reminder of how I can do my part in making the future just a little brighter, a little cleaner, and a little greener for generations to come.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
07/18/25
Full Review
Joshua H
If you drive by a small cornfield, you wouldn’t think much of it. It’s just a small field, with a small barn. What more is there to understand? Well, through directors Joshua and Rebecca Tickell’s vision, the documentary Common Ground has opened my mind and understanding on how a tiny farm can play a huge role in environmental health. With the harming practices of modern agriculture, directors Joshua and Rebecca Tickell present perhaps the most powerful tool that heals environmental health. And we are standing right on top of it.
Soil can play a huge role in not just improving our world’s health, but also improving our lives in the process. Regenerative agriculture is the key that the documentary represents, the process of working with nature to benefit our lives but also enhancing the world’s health like reducing the carbon in the atmosphere and maintaining water cycles. The documentary takes the audience on a journey all across America -even in Mexico- to gain unique insights from soil experts and regenerative farmers to experience the power of regenerative agriculture. Regenerative rancher Alejandro Carillo shows how he reshapes desert landscapes from an endless sea of sand into thriving green fields just from using cow poop. Rancher Roy Thompson was able to heal his Crohn’s disease through eating natural grown produce he grows from regenerative practices without the use of pesticides. And we even see Mia Vaughnes helping her neighbors grow natural produce in their own backyard so they can have their own supply of nurturing produce.
The directors also pull the curtain back on how agrochemical companies truly run our food supply. We get to see how far the agrochemical companies reach within the educational and agricultural business systems from filling the pockets of politicians to creating a cycle of money flowing back to them from farmers. They spread misinformation while benefiting the damage from those same misinformation.
Zianna Milito’s detailed animation helps visualize the explanations so an audience member can follow and understand. It feels at moments that I was part of the explanation with the camera flowing with the carbon dioxide through tree roots and swimming in a cluster of microorganisms underneath the soil. The Tickell’s also wrote fantastically for the documentary, breaking down the scientific explanations into easy digestible sentences for the audience. They did a great job selecting subjects for the documentary, such as Gabe Brown and Roy Thompson. Despite the different backgrounds, all interviewees share the same sincerity of speech, engaging the audience with the narrative. The celebrity cast like Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, and Rosario Dawson bring an earnest and hopeful delivery in their narration during the documentary. But the documentary's greatest strength is in how well it balances the tone. For somber moments, Ryan Michael Demaree’s score quiets down as a single guitar is played over the slower shots of the documentary highlighting the seriousness of the scene. But depressing the audience is not the goal. The documentary naturally integrates colorful thriving environments and the score uplifts to a hopeful melody that sparks the hope within their audience. Regenerative agriculture doesn’t just heal the world, it can heal our health and our future generation’s health to come.
Common Ground is not just a hidden gem on Amazon. It has elevated itself to a piece of art that delivers a critical environmental message and hope that change is possible. It is never too late to change our way for the future. And the future for that tiny cornfield.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
07/18/25
Full Review
Ralph W
It is more clear than ever that we need to make a change. Without this change, if the world’s environment continues towards decline, it might soon be too late. This outstanding piece of cinema by the experienced directors Joshua and Rebecca Tickell thoroughly documents the ongoing battle towards restoring and preventing the damage done to the environment's climate by reincorporating organic agricultural practices that have stood the test of time. With the discovery of how important soil is to keeping the world healthy, it’s time to stop desertification and get serious, because if we don’t, the world around us will become a dust bowl.
In this documentary, we get a glimpse of the destruction caused by conventional farming and agriculture. Agriculture is a dirty field to step into, with many people unwilling to change out of fear of losing money. But as we soon learn, those daring to try implementing regenerative practices in farming quickly found an increase in profits, and their lands gained from it as well. Activists and actors like Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Donald Glover, Ian Somerhalder and Woody Harrelson combine their influence to shed some light on the dark issues. There's a lack of clarity covering a few of the systemic issues regarding the prevention of change, amplified by the media's inability to cover it. In the documentary, we are shown a few of the many unfortunate realities of farmers affected by the dark side of agriculture. The quality of life for farmers is degrading and has been for almost a century. The very providers that help sustain life are being misled into an unforgiving cycle that drains their health and their pockets. Not only infertile soil but diminishing health and wellness.
There is a solution to counteract this downward path, and ironically, it’s to look down into the soil, the very thing that we stand on. We have to keep the nutrients in the soil healthy, and use alternative solutions to plant growth other than hormones and pesticides. This ground, once fertile and nutrient-rich with plants that help clean the air, becomes a wasteland of dust, reflecting heat into the atmosphere. This process of desertification is caused not just by a lack of diverse crops, but the use of pesticides, which kill the microbes in the soil. Fortunately, there is hope! Pioneers of regenerative ranching, like Gabe Brown and Rick Clark, took a great risk implementing regenerative practices on their farms. The rewards, however, speak for themselves. Through using cover crops, removing pesticides, and using no-till drills, they found that the soil gets all the necessary nitrogen it needs, making harmful pesticides obsolete. This documentary covers so much essential developing information and with the success of the film being recognized critically, hopefully so too will the rest of the media. Then, finally, the solution will be common ground for knowledge we can all harness.
The feeling of concern and empathy stayed with me much through this film. There is a dire need to make these changes after seeing those affected by the corruption in the agricultural industry. With the stories of farmers affected by the harmful side effects, it becomes more clear than ever that a group effort through collaboration is needed to make a positive change. After finishing the movie, I couldn't help but feel determined to not continue feeling upset through complacency. Thankfully, by the end of the documentary, I had better understood how to help restore the damage dealt by desertification caused by conventional farming. It takes the hard work of those willing to try without a guaranteed positive result, not only the scientists and the farmers, but even us watching. With the overview of each issue, I enjoyed the lighthearted edits of examples provided by the editors like Anthony Ellison with the cinematography work by Simon Balderaz and Joaquim Pujol, demonstrating how too much self-interest on the business side of the agricultural pesticide industry is attractive yet inconsiderate. The images of burning money, living fast comes at the expense of the real people, like the intimate stories of people with families being harmed. With Ryan Demaree's composition of the music the message of the contrasting lifestyles between the business side of industry and the farmers and consumers affected resonated deeply. Through the vision of the director, Joshua Tickell we are given a newfound perspective. A harsh reality check and wake-up call,
I recommend this film to those who enjoy a mature documentary, as I think the message will be better digested not as worry or striking fear, but as a call to action. This is the kind of documentary that can be watched with your family, friends, and loved ones, and by the end of it, you will look at each other with a new perspective towards how important regenerative farming is. Perhaps too optimistic, but I hope that this film continues to inspire and remind us of our individual contributions and how they will impact the future. There is hope! All we have to do is find common ground and work towards it together.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/11/25
Full Review
Phillip D
I had been trying to track this documentary down as well as Kiss the Ground. Very glad that they are available to watch now.
Kiss the Ground was much more meat & potatoes. This one is a little more of an appeal to people’s sensibilities rather than a scientific approach. I graded this 1-1/2 stars less because I don’t prefer sensationalism.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
05/23/25
Full Review
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