About The Film

Film Synopsis

Award-winning director Ben Knight explores a national issue, magnified in the American West, around water scarcity, following a multi-generational Italian and Hispanic immigrant farming community living on “The Mesa” in Pueblo, Colorado. The documentary sheds light on their history and heritage, each family sharing their agricultural lineage, one that transcends every aspect of their lives, shaping their culture and livelihood.

Realizing an uncertain future due the West’s diminishing water supply, Williams Farm & Seed Store, Musso Farms, Professor Mike Bartolo and Martellaro Family Farms reflect on their passion to grow and nourish their families, communities and pastime.

Nationally we’re losing 2,000 acres of land each day. Produced by Palmer Land Conservancy, MIRASOL film explores how rural agricultural communities, and the food they put on our tables, is threatened by rapid development, population growth, climate change, and competing economies. MIRASOL challenges us to consider what’s at stake and whether we are willing to take action to protect it.

Conservation is a solution

One of the most pressing issues of our time in the American West is the dwindling water supply from the Colorado River which is a lifeline for 40 million people and the $15 million a year agriculture industry that depends on it. Analysts say the river is in peril and climate change, the result of low snowpack and drought, has put us in crisis.

The impact moves far beyond the Colorado River Basin as 70 percent of water supplies from southern Colorado’s largest urban areas in the Arkansas River Basin, Colorado Springs and Pueblo rely on the Colorado River.

Palmer’s Bessemer Farmland Conservation Project on the Mesa in Pueblo is an example of solutions that are being developed to balance the competing needs of water between growing cities, the environment and agriculture.

Learn more

Since 1977, Palmer Land Conservancy has worked to conserve over 138,000 acres of land forever. They are a cutting-edge Colorado water and conservation leader committed to developing innovative solutions that balance the competing needs of dwindling water supplies that allow for growing cities, thriving agriculture, and a healthy environment. Palmer has spent the last 8 years working alongside the local Pueblo farmers, community, and local water utility to protect “the Mesa” in the face of an impending dry up.

About palmer land conservancy

Join the movement

Film Subjects

Mike Bartolo PhD. | Senior Research Scientist (Ret.d), Colorado State University

Bartolo is a third generation farmer. His grandparents came to Colorado for mining and eventually saved enough money to buy a farm. Bartolo, now retired, worked as a senior research scientist and extension vegetable crops specialist at Colorado State University. While he might not see himself as the developer of the legendary Pueblo Chile, others do. While walking through a field he noticed a unique looking Chile pepper. For years he saved the seed and it eventually gave rise to the Mosco pepper, named after his uncle, which ultimately became the original form of the Pueblo Chile.

Dawn DiPrince | Executive Director, History Colorado

DiPrince has been involved with History Colorado for more than 11 years, beginning as the assistant director of the El Pueblo History Museum. For the last few years she’s served as the organization’s President/CEO and the State Historic Preservation Officer. As a fourth generation Coloradan, she has a deep appreciation for the state’s unique and complex history. DiPrince says that it’s impossible to separate the practices of agriculture from our culture itself —learning an old tradition is something that becomes a part of you that you can then share with future generations.

Jace Martellaro | Farmer and Mechanic

Jace is a member of Pueblo’s younger generation who is eager to take over the family farm. His grandfather, Tony Martellaro, would go work at the mill pouring hot steel and then come and work the farm. As a kid Tony would take field trips to a farm on top of a hill and said that someday he’d own it — he was right. Jace’s father builds houses and then comes down and works the farm, and Jace hopes to carry on that tradition and run the farm himself someday. To Jace, keeping the farm in the family and continuing the traditions he’s grown up with is of utmost importance.

Rocky Musso | Musso Farms

The Mussos have been farming the same land in Pueblo, Colorado for five generations — ever since the family emigrated from Italy. Today, the farm is mostly run by Rocky Musso and his father. For Rocky, the joy he gets from working the farm outweighs any of the negatives: the smell in early spring when everyone starts plowing the fields, the excitement that follows and the happiness he gets to witness when people delight over fresh produce and the iconic scent of roasting chiles. But he worries too, about water, about the land and the sustainability of the lifestyle he loves.

Sandy Williams | Williams Family Farm & Seed Store

A little red brick storefront built by the founder of Williams Farm & Seed Store has stood the test of time for 85 years while four generations of the Williams family have kept Pueblo gardeners deeply rooted. Located on The Mesa, the family once offered 70 to 75 different types of seeds from grasses to watermelons, to vegetable and flower starter plants. In 2023, the farm was listed for sale and the family is working toward conservation as a solution to ensure the farm remains in production, forever.

Ben Knight | Director

Filmmaker Ben Knight has made a career telling big, controversial stories with compassion and artistry. Ben was first inspired to make documentaries as a young man working behind the projector at Telluride Mountainfilm. Since then, he has become widely acclaimed for his adventure and environmental filmmaking. His films include the feature length documentary DamNation (premiered at SXSW 2014 and produced in conjunction with Patagonia), The Last Honey Hunter (Mountainfilm 2018; National Geographic), Learning to Drown (Tribeca 2021; The North Face) - and a myriad of films that masterfully intertwine raw human stories with the grandeur of the natural world.