Friday, September 8th, 2017 THE LAND BENEATH OUR FEET (doc., 2016)

Description

The Land Beneath Our Feet (2016) follows a young Liberian man, uprooted by war, who returns from the USA with never-before-seen footage of Liberia’s past. The uncovered footage is embraced as a national treasure. Depicting a 1926 corporate land grab, it is also an explosive reminder of eroding land rights. In post-conflict Liberia, individuals and communities are pitted against multinational corporations, the government, and each other in life-threatening disputes over land. What can this ghostly footage offer a nation, as it debates radical land reforms that could empower communities to shape a more diverse, stable and sustainable future?

Gregg Mitman is the Director, Producer, and Writer of The Land Beneath Our Feet. He is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and teacher, who has spent the past decade uncovering the story behind the 1926 Harvard expedition to Liberia. He holds a distinguished research chair at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is founder and director of Madison’s popular environmental film festival, Tales from Planet Earth. Mitman recently directed and produced In the Shadow of Ebola (2015, 23 min.), an intimate story of a family and nation torn apart by the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, which aired online on PBS/Independent Lens.