Infertile Ground
As hurricanes intensify, air turns toxic, and water runs dirty, the climate crisis is coming for the Black family. Infertile Ground follows Black people across the South fighting for healthy births in a country that demands more babies but refuses to make it safe to have them.
Through three interconnected stories, INFERTILE GROUND explores the pain, frustration and joy as Black families navigate the rocky path to parenthood while the air gets dirtier, the world warms up, and extreme weather becomes commonplace. More than just a climate film or reproductive justice narrative, INFERTILE GROUND is a social justice story about how environmental racism is destroying Black families before they can even begin, making the vital connections between race, fertility, and a climate crisis that few people are talking about.
The CDC found that in 2024 the Black birth rate fell 4%– the steepest decline of any racial group. This represents thousands of families who wanted children but couldn’t conceive, carry to term, or deliver safely while cuts to climate change and reproductive health funding only increase.
For many Americans, the dream is simple: build a family, raise healthy children, pass something on to the next generation. But climate change is robbing that dream from Black communities, poisoning the very foundations of life before families can even begin. INFERTILE GROUND exposes the connection between climate change and Black fertility that much of mainstream media ignores. Environmental documentaries often focus on polar bears and melting ice caps. Reproductive rights films on abortion access. Neither addresses this intersection that’s impacting Black families. INFERTILE GROUND fills this massive gap by connecting climate change to reproductive justice through the lived experiences of Black families fighting for their right to exist.