Source: Gabriela Diaz de Sabates, gabsab@k-state.edu, 785-532-5738

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009

'DIRT' THE MOVIE TO BE SHOWN ON CAMPUS FRIDAY

MANHATTAN -- The women's studies program's Women of Color Film series is screening the film "DIRT!" at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, in 13 Leasure Hall on the Kansas State University campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Gabriela Diaz de Sabates, instructor in women's studies and doctoral student in curriculum and instruction, said a panel discussion sponsored by the College of Agriculture will follow the film. Panelists include Rhonda Janke, horticulture, forestry and recreation resources; Chuck Rice and Gary Pierzynski, agronomy; and Angela Tran, agronomy and natural resources and environmental sciences.

According to "Dirt!" producers, "This film tells the amazing and rarely known story of the relationship between humans and living 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, global warming and wars. If we continue on our current path, dirt might find another use for humans: compost for future life forms. This film offers a vision of a sustainable relationship between humans and dirt through profiles of global visionaries who are determined to repair the damage we have done before it's too late."

This film screening leads to Vandana Shiva's upcoming lecture "Soil Not Oil: Food Security in an Age of Climate Change" at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, in McCain Auditorium, Sabates said. Shiva is a scientist, feminist, ecologist and author.