Film Screenings

How does the simple act of planting trees lead to winning a Nobel Peace Prize?   What is women's role with the environmental sustainability?   In what ways was the Green Belt Movement also a women's movement?   What is our role with the environmental sustainabilty?  What can an average citizen do to promote sound, beneficial practices and policies toward other countries?  We will answer these questions and more at the film screenings of  "Taking Root" .

"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves"    Mahatma Gandhi

"It is the people who must save the environment.   It is the people who must make their leaders change.   And we cannot be intimidated.  So we must stand up for what we believe in."    Wangari Maathai

Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate  Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy - a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration. Planting trees for fuel, shade, and food is not something that anyone would imagine as the first step toward winning the Nobel Peace Prize.   Yet with that simple act Wangari Maathai, a woman born in rural Kenya, started down the path that reclaimed her country's land from 100 years of deforestation, provided new sources of food and income to rural communities, gave previously impoverished and powerless women a vital political role in their country, and ultimately helped to bring down Kenya's twenty-four-year dictatorship. In 1981, Wangari Maathai received a grant from UNIFEM for a reforestation and employement project.  UNIFEM's support helped thousands of women to plant millions of trees, and the movement jump-started a glboal call for "development by the people, rather than for the people".

Participate in one of the screenings listed below and celebrate the International Day of Peace with us.

Chapel Hill
Date/Time: Tuesday September 21st 6:30PM
Location: Auditorium, Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building, UNC Chapel Hill (click here for direction)

Raleigh
Date/Time: Tuesday September 21st 6PM
Location: Campus Cinema, Witherspoon Student Center, North Carolina State University (click here for direction)

Wilmington
Date/Time: Monday September 20th 7PM
Location: Randall Library Auditorium (2nd floor), UNC Wilmington (click here for campus map - building FL is the library)