On Monday April 5, the documentary “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai,” was shown in Pierce Hall to a crowd of over 100 students, staff, and faculty members to help raise awareness of cultural, political, and social issues happening in Kenya.
The film is the second in a series of documentaries to be shown to the campus community. After the viewing of the film, audience members had the chance to talk with the director during a question and answer session.
The documentary, which took over five years to film, goes through the struggles that the Kenyan nation faced with politics and natural resources by going around planting trees throughout the nation. “We’re faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking,” Maathai said in the movie. “Women thought they needed diplomas to plant trees.”
Sustainability Coordinator Michelle Comeau believes that the movement is something that students at the university should try to instill within their everyday lives. “You don’t have to sit and watch politics happen, you are part of it, and [Taking Root] truly shows that one person can start something but a whole group can make a change,” Comeau said.
This activism lead by Maathai ultimately lead to the Green Belt Movement where poor rural women in Kenya have planted over 40 million trees, restored their main source of fuel, and stopped soil erosion.
Mass Communication Professor Ukumbwa Sauti attended the documentary and feels that a movement such as this should be more universal and brought to the forefront of an environmental impact. “The connection between what we see as politics and how that relates and affects what people do is something one should think about,” Sauti said.
After the showing of the documentary, Co-Director Alan Dater answered questions from students and faculty. “It’s fascinating to watch these people," he said. "Little by little they began to understand their own history through us filming them. To see these people come alive and take their power back; it would be wonderful if we had some process like that in this country."
To find out more about “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai,” the Green Belt Movement, or Wangari Maathai visit http://takingrootfilm.com.
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