Sunday, April 25, 2010

Movie Review: Dirt!

Dirt! is an informative documentary that teaches about the importance of our soil for our very existence. It's a fairly short film, 80 minutes, but the 33 extra minutes of deleted scenes are very ineresting and very worthwhile as well.

Dirt! shows that soil is actually a rich ecosystem of life, not just dead stuff. You will see and understand easily the difference between sustainable and unsustainable agriculture. All in the course of discussing dirt we see illustrated the true interconnection of all life. Various experts convey diverse aspects of the science of soil, the reality of climate change, the necessary remedies to protect the future and the array of other positive effects on societies that these steps will produce. These people include photographers, a mycologist, a wine expert, sustainable farmers in America, France & India, chef Alice Waters, biologists and more.

If you want to understand what is happening to our environment, why we should make change to the way we live, this film illustrates it clearly in a non-political, non-didactic way.

Animation clips make this a family friendly film that simplifies complex information, however, it is an intelligent film that is meant for adults and does not talk down to viewers.

Many more important points are raised, such as the dangers of the globalization of food, the lack of traditional food culture in America, the power of gardening to rehabilitate prisoners and the fact that if just Ethiopia was farmed sustainably, it could feed nearly all of Africa.

Dirt! is an important movie, I sincerely hope that you will watch it, perhaps with your family or friends. When spiritual cultures say that all aspects of nature are alive & have spirit, the Western lens often sees them as "primative", or "savage", but this film shows how ignorant and savage we are to wantonly destroy the ecosystem that provides our food. Fertility cannot come from chemicals, man does not out-smart nature. Chemical fertility leads to soil death & desertification. The only true fertility comes by nature's processes.

Once again, humankind's superiority complex is proven pompous & wrong. We are only part of nature. We are all future dirt.

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