Description |
1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 80 min.) |
Summary |
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai tells the inspiring story of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya and its founder Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S.- educated Professor Maathai discovered her life's work by reconnecting with the rural women with whom she had grown up. Their lives had become intolerable: they were walking longer distances for firewood, clean water was scarce, the soil was disappearing from their farms, and their children were suffering from malnutrition. Maathai thought to herself, "Well, why not plant trees?" She soon discovered that tree planting had a ripple effect of empowering change. Countering the devastating cultural effects of colonialism, Maathai began teaching communities about self-knowledge as a path to change and community action. The women worked successively against deforestation, poverty, ignorance, embedded economic interests, and violent political oppression. They became a national political force that helped to bring down Kenya's 24-year dictatorship. Through TV footage and chilling first person accounts, Taking Root documents the dramatic confrontations of the 1980s and '90s as the women of the Green Belt Movement confront human rights abuses and environmental degradation. Cinema verité footage of the tree nurseries and the women and children who tend them brings to life the confidence and joy of people working to improve their own lives on their terms. Taking Root captures a world-view in which nothing is perceived as impossible and presents an awe-inspiring profile of Maathai's unstoppable and courageous thirty-year journey to protect the environment, defend human rights, and promote democracy |
Notes |
Title from title frames |
|
Originally produced in 2008 |
|
This version produced by New Day Films |
Credits |
Editors, Mary Lampson, Tom Haneke, Jim Klein, Alan Dater ; original music, Samite ; cinematographer, Alan Dater |
Performer |
Commentary, Wangari Muta Maathai, Naomi Kabura Mukunu, Leah Kisomo, Lilian Wanjiru Njehu, Rebah Wasike, Kamoji Wachiira, Moses Ndiritu Muta, Njogu Kahare, Kang'ethe Mungai, Ngorongo Makanga, Vertistine Mbaya, Nyakweya Ngunjiri, Njehu Gatabaki, Ruth Wangari Thungu, Reverend Peter Njenga, Lilian Muchungi, Fredrick Njau, Major General Njuki Mwaniki |
Notes |
In English and Swahili with English subtitles. Closed-captioned |
|
Full Frame Women in Leadership Award, Documentary Film Festival ; Best Feature Length Film Directed by a Woman, Nashville Film Festival, 2008 ; Best Documentary Feature, Honorable Mention, Nashville Film Festival, 2008 ; Amnesty International Human Rights Award, Durban Film Festival ; Harold & Margret Blank, Award for Storytelling, Vermont International Film Festival, 2008 ; Audience Award Winner, Projecting Change Film Festival, 2008 ; Green Cinema Award, Maudi Film Festival, 2008 ; Prix du Public, RIDM, 2008 ; Prix EcoCamera, RIDM, 2008 |
Subject |
Maathai, Wangari.
|
SUBJECT |
Maathai, Wangari fast |
Subject |
Green Belt Movement (Society : Kenya)
|
SUBJECT |
Green Belt Movement (Society : Kenya) fast |
Subject |
Tree planters (Persons) -- Kenya
|
|
Women conservationists -- Kenya
|
|
Women politicians -- Kenya
|
|
Nobel Prize winners -- Kenya
|
|
Nobel Prize winners
|
|
Tree planters (Persons)
|
|
Women conservationists
|
|
Women politicians
|
|
Kenya
|
Genre/Form |
documentary film.
|
|
Internet videos
|
|
Biographical films
|
|
Documentary films
|
|
Environmental films
|
|
Feature films
|
|
Nonfiction films
|
|
Documentary films.
|
|
Biographical films.
|
|
Nonfiction films.
|
|
Internet videos.
|
|
Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
|
|
Documentaires.
|
|
Films biographiques.
|
|
Films autres que de fiction.
|
|
Vidéos sur Internet.
|
|
Vidéos pour personnes handicapées auditives.
|
Form |
Streaming video
|
Author |
Merton, Lisa, film director, producer.
|
|
Dater, Alan, film director, film producer, director of photography.
|
|
Maathai, Wangari, interviewee.
|
|
Lampson, Mary, editor of moving image work.
|
|
Haneke, Tom, editor of moving image work.
|
|
Klein, Jim, 1948- editor of moving image work.
|
|
Samite, composer (expression)
|
|
Marlboro Productions (Firm), film production company.
|
|
New Day Films, film distributor.
|
|
Kanopy (Firm), publisher.
|
|