Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, a new film by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, tells the inspiring story of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya and its unstoppable founder, Wangari Maathai, who, in 2004, became the first environmentalist and first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Through chilling first person accounts and TV-news footage, Taking Root documents the Green Belt Movement’s dramatic political confrontations of the 1980s and '90s –a time when Maathai and other Kenyan women endured violent suppression, hunger strike, and risked personal injury. Taking Root also chronicles the women’s successful political action in 2002 that helped to bring down Daniel Arap Moi, dictator of Kenya for 24 years. Contemporary cinema verité footage of the tree nurseries, and the improved lives of the women and children who tend them, is testimony to the power of Maathai’s vision and the positive change it has brought about. In the coming year, Taking Root and related resources will be made available to schools and community groups through an ambitious grassroots campaign that will utilize Maathai’s model for sustainable development, integrated problem solving and citizen empowerment.







Credits


Directors/ Producers: Lisa Merton and Alan Dater

Editors: Mary Lampson, Tom Haneke, Jim Klein, Alan Dater

Cinemetographer: Alan Dater