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March 19, 2009
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March 19, 2009 |
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‘Taking Root’ has roots in village
Timing is everything. From the right person at the right time who can inspire a national movement to the careful editing and sequencing of raw footage that will create a compelling documentary about that movement, timing is a powerful catalyst. The documentary Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai is a tribute to timing on many levels. A special preview screening sponsored by the Black Oak Project will be presented at the Little Art Theatre, Saturday, March 21, at 4 p.m. Admission is free. “The filmmakers [Vermont residents Lisa Merton and Alan Dater] started on this movie about six years ago,” said local filmmaker Jim Klein, one of four editors who worked on the film. “They were working on it because they care about the environment and international politics and all the things Wangari Maathai is involved in. They went to Kenya to work on the film with very little money. Nobody else had any interest in this subject whatsoever.” That all changed when Maathai, a member of the Kikuyu, Kenya’s most economically successful ethnic group, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. “All of a sudden,” Klein explained, “there were thousands of crews from all over the world that wanted to make films about her.” Maathai refused them all. According to Klein, she recognized that the film team from Vermont understood and valued the work she was doing before she received the prestigious award. Maathai agreed to do other interviews only after the Merton/Dater film was completed. Since its premiere last year, Taking Root has been winning awards in documentary film festivals around the world. The film traces Africa’s problems back to colonial practices and post-colonial corruption that resulted in widespread deforestation, soil erosion and other forms of environmental degradation. In the film, Maathai describes her childhood in Kenya and her early relationship to what was then a fertile earth. After being chosen in 1960 as one of 600 Kenyan students to go to college in the U.S., she returned six years later to see the beloved creek from her childhood dried up, denuded forests and malnourished villagers. What began in 1976 with the simple idea to encourage women to plant trees gradually developed into a broad-based, grassroots organization that fought against corruption, greed and outdated social conventions. The Green Belt Movement, founded by Maathai, is now a source of ethnic pride, an expression of women’s rights and a symbol of self-sufficiency. “I was totally entranced by Wangari Maathai,” said Klein. “I think she’s a great role model and heroine of our times. Here was this woman who had amazing environmental expertise, who learned to be a community organizer and motivate and activate thousands, maybe millions, of people in Kenya.” Klein was also moved by Maathai’s courage, “her ability to put her life on the line again and again,” and the timely connection to Yellow Springs’ own greenbelt preservation efforts. An independent filmmaker since 1969, Klein’s first three films were in collaboration with local filmmaker Julia Reichert. The two met at Antioch College and two early films, Union Maids and Seeing Red, were nominated for Academy Awards. Those films were the beginning of a long-time partnership, both personally and professionally, and the founding of New Day Films, the premiere, member-owned distribution cooperative for social issue media by independent filmmakers. The two continue to collaborate on films as well as co-teach film production at Wright State University. Taking Root filmmakers Merton and Dater are longtime colleagues and fellow members of New Day Films. When the two ran into trouble deep into their production of the film, they called on Klein, who sees himself as a “film doctor.” “Most films I’ve worked on, I haven’t really worked on from the beginning,” said Klein. “People get into trouble and they come to me.” The finished film will be broadcast nationally on the PBS series “Independent Lens,” beginning in April. Independent Television Service (ITVS) and The Black Oak Project at CSU are sponsoring the preview screening of Taking Root before its national broadcast. According to Deborah E. Stokes, associate professor of English and founder and director of The Black Oak Project, the group receives half a dozen films each year from ITVS to preview and selects the ones that best address African-American concerns to present to neighboring communities and universities. The collaboration showcases films that specifically foster community activism. A question and answer panel will follow the Saturday screening. Panel members include Klein; native Kenyans and Wilberforce residents James Siwo (professor of accounting and management at Wilberforce University) and Florida Jardon Siwo; Sam L. Laki, professor of resource economics in the Water Resources Management Program at CSU; and Yvonne Chappelle Seon, Africare board member and former executive director of the Inga Dam Project in Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo. Contact: sgartner@ysnews.com
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