DIRT! The Movie

Contents

"Floods, drought, climate change, even war are all
directly related to the way we are treating dirt."

DIRT! The Movie – directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow – takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation. DIRT! The Movie, tells the amazing and little known story of the relationship between humans and living dirt.

The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, "dirt is very much alive." Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted. "Drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt."

DIRT! the Movie--narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis--brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.

DIRT! the Movie is simply a movie about dirt. The real change lies in our notion of what dirt is. The movie teaches us: "When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked." But more than the film and the lessons that it teaches, DIRT the Movie is a call to action.

"The only remedy for disconnecting people from the natural world is connecting them to it again."

What we've destroyed, we can heal.

Why Dirt?

Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth's climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.

Yet most humans ignore, abuse, and destroy our most precious living natural resource. Consider the results of such behavior: mass starvation, drought, floods, and global warming, and wars. If we continue on our current path, Dirt might find another use for humans, as compost for future life forms.

It doesn't have to be that way. Another world, in which we treat dirt with the respect it deserves, is possible and we'll show you how.

The film offers a vision of a sustainable relationship between Humans and Dirt through profiles of the global visionaries who are determined to repair the damage we've done before it's too late. There are many ways we can preserve the living skin of the earth for future generations. If you care about your food, water, the air you breathe, your health and happiness... it's time to see DIRT! the Movie, roll up your sleeves for action and Get Dirty.

Filmaker Comments

When Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow decided to make the documentary "Dirt! The Movie, " they knew they would not make a traditional soil science documentary.

“Dirt is a living engine for life on Earth,” says Benenson.  “It recycles everything that falls to the ground. If we didn’t have a living skin on the Earth, we wouldn’t exist.”

“We are treating dirt as a story, not a topic,” Rosow adds.  “We want people to start off with an emotional connection to dirt.  Then we want to instill a sense of caution about the destructive things we are doing to nature and dirt and how those behaviors impact our daily lives.”

The genesis for the film came when Benenson was given a copy of William Bryant Logan’s book "Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth," in which Logan wrote a series of essays that elevated dirt to a new level of importance by looking at the numerous roles dirt plays in everyday life.  Benenson was intrigued, and shared it with Rosow, a former student of biochemistry, cellular physiology and ecology.

“After reading the book, I realized how out of touch I had become with the ground beneath my feet. Like most city people, I take dirt for granted,” Rosow says.

“The challenge for a filmmaker was, how do you make this subject interesting?” Benenson adds.  “We try to give people hope and empower them to see the possibilities and their potential to change things.”

Benenson and Rosow want "Dirt! The Movie " to play a role in educational outreach as well.  The film and its website, www.dirtthemovie.org, link viewers with a variety of activists and environmental organizations. These groups and sites offer practical information on being part of the solution.  “It’s all about sustainability,” Benenson says.

The production team filmed in more than 20 locations, including Argentina, Brazil, France, India, Kenya, and several regions of the United States.

On their journey, the filmmakers found:

• Farmers and agronomists re-discovering sustainable agriculture.
• Tiny villages standing up for their right to feed their families.
• Scientists discovering connections with soil that can help reduce global warming including ways to generate electricity from soils and sediments.
• Inmates finding inner peace and job skills in a prison horticulture program.
• Children uncovering the secrets of soil fertility and eating from edible schoolyards.

Our Partners

DIRT! the Movie gave a voice to the dirt movement. Below are the organizations that fuel the movement. These organizations are intently committed to solving the world’s environmental challenges.

Tree People

Rainforest Action Network

Dirt makes trees. Trees make oxygen. Oxygen makes life.

The Center for Food Safety

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture

Organic Consumers Association

Dirt will keep making healthy food for people as long as
people keep making healthy food for Dirt.

Conservation International

Bioneers

Dirt feeds plants. Plants feed animals (and that means you).
Animals feed Dirt. United we stand. Divided we fall.

The Natural Resource Defense Council

Mountains make shade. And wind patterns. And thus rain destinations.
Dirt makes mountains. Don’t move that Dirt!

DIRT! The Movie Blog