November 21, 2026 | 3–6 PM | 3119 Terrace Street, Kansas City, MO
Free event. Registration required. Limited volunteer spots available.
Join us for the world premiere of SENA: A Meal at the Edges of Empire, a new 30-minute documentary from Kansas City filmmakers Nathan Johnson and John Warren Borja Martín Austin.
Filmed in Georgia, Missouri, Washington, and Guam, SENA explores the people and places connected by the U.S. food system and invites us to think about how food moves from where it begins to where it ends up.
After the film, we’ll talk with the filmmakers and then head into the Kanbe’s warehouse to sort fresh produce together.
Watch the food system. Talk about it. Then get your hands on one piece of it.
Choose your experience
Film Premiere — Screening Only
Join us for the film and filmmaker conversation. Screening attendance is open to a larger audience, with space limited by venue capacity.
Film Premiere + Produce Sorting
Stay after the film to sort fresh produce alongside the Kanbe’s team and fellow attendees. Volunteer spots are limited, so reserve your spot when registering. Volunteers must be at least 11 years old.
Event Schedule
3:00 p.m. | Film screening (please arrive early)
3:30 p.m. | Filmmaker conversation
4:00–6:00 p.m. | Volunteer produce sorting
A Note from SENA Co-Director John
We love this film, and we hope it moves you.
Nathan and I made it to be seen in community. We did not make it for streaming or for watching it in isolation. It was made for you, to be seen with others.
SENA became more and more personal to me throughout the course of its production. I’ve been making documentary films for several years now, but SENA is the first film that felt like a full expression of me as a filmmaker and as a person with Indigenous ancestry.
Without the encouragement of our partners at the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) to lean more into artistic expression, and without the trust and creative direction of my friend and co-director Nathan Johnson, this film would not exist in its current form—or at all.
SENA is artful, storyful, and useful. Now we get to see it together. It’s important to me that you see it.
Come enjoy this film, then get to work in the Kanbe’s warehouse right beside me and others who celebrate independent films, enjoy learning about complex systems (like our food system), and understand the value of feeling tethered to one another.