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Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. 80 minutes (including 53 minute abridged version). 2008. Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, filmmakers. New Day Films. 190 Route I7M, P.O. Box 1084. Harriman, NY 10926. www.newday.com. $285.00 (purchase). $75.00 (rental).
"You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself, that values itself, that understands itself," Wangari Maathai tells us. So begins the story of Maathai's 35-year struggle to defend human rights, promote democracy, and protect the environment in Kenya by confronting not just deforestation and poverty, but ignorance, intransigent economic interests, and violent political oppression. In a testimony to her struggle, Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. Taking Root is a powerful account of how respect for human dignity and belief in the transformative power of ordinary women and men can "take root" where "normal forms of democracy" are considered impossible.
The film begins with Maathai describing her life in Kenya as a child, where frog eggs flourished in clear rivers beneath massive trees. Earning a scholarship in 1960, she leaves to study in the United States and eventually becomes the first East African women to earn a PhD. When she returns to her childhood home, she finds the frog eggs gone along with the rivers and trees. She also discovers rural women struggling to find firewood and water for their families. They had to put too much land into cash crops and their children were suffering from disease associated with malnutrition, Maathai recalls. "Why don't you plant trees," she asked the women?...