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10-23-07
NEW 'KING CORN' DOCUMENTARY DEBUTS AT ISU NOVEMBER 7
AMES, Iowa – What Iowan doesn’t know about corn? We grow more of it than anyone
else; it’s everywhere around us, in many of our foods, and increasingly is
filling our fuel tanks. Yet sometimes it helps to have a set of fresh eyes,
which is exactly what is offered by a new feature documentary that will be
presented at Iowa State University on November 7.
The ISU Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture and a number of other ISU
groups will host an Iowa screening of King Corn, a 90-minute documentary
directed by award-winning filmmaker Aaron Woolf.
In the film, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from Yale University, move
to the small town of Greene in north central Iowa to grow an acre of corn and
follow it through the food system. While being a critical documentary, King Corn
unfolds in a humorous fashion, from a trip to register their one acre for
government payments, to trying to make high-fructose corn syrup in the farm
house kitchen. The Boston Globe has called this film “enormously entertaining”
and it also will be broadcast nationally next year as part of the PBS series,
Independent Lens.
After the screening, filmmakers Ellis and Woolf will discuss the film, its
findings and implications.
“We’re really looking forward to screening the film in Iowa,” says Ellis. “We
enjoyed living there, and this film would not have been possible without the
kind support of so many Iowans.” Two Iowa State University professors appear in
the film.
The screening and discussion will take place in the LeBaron Auditorium at 6:30
and 8 p.m., respectively, on November 7.
Joining the GPSA to screen the documentary are the ISU Bioethics Program, the
Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture, Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture, ISU Department of Sociology, Practical Farmers of Iowa,
Slow Food Ames and the ISU Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB).
For more information,
contact:
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