The Marquee Performing Arts Center will close the three-part summer Green Screen film series Saturday August 21, 7:00 pm, with a screening of Emmy Award Winning Green Fire. The film explores the life and legacy of famed conservationist Aldo Leopold and the many ways his land ethic philosophy lives on in the work of people and organizations all over the country today.
The film shares highlights from Leopold’s life and extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation and the modern environmental movement. It also illustrates Leopold’s continuing influence, exploring current projects that connect people and land at the local level. Meet urban children in Chicago learning about local foods and ecological restoration. Meet ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico who maintain healthy landscapes by working on their own properties, and with their neighbors, in cooperative community conservation efforts. Meet wildlife biologists who are bringing threatened and endangered species back to the landscapes where they once thrived. And learn how Leopold’s vision of a community that cares about both people and land ties all of these modern conservation stories together, and offers inspiration and insight for the future.
“There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other and the relation of people to the land,” Aldo Leopold wrote. His acclaimed Sand County Almanac remains a hallmark of conservation and environmental inspiration seventy years after its publication. In it, Leopold proposed a “land ethic” that became a foundation for the conservation movement that continues today.
The Aldo Leopold Foundation website explains a land ethic. “Ethics direct all members of a community to treat one another with respect for the mutual benefit of all. A land ethic expands the definition of “community” to include not only humans, but all of the other parts of the Earth, as well: soils, waters, plants, and animals, or what Leopold called “the land.” In Leopold’s vision of a land ethic, the relationships between people and land are intertwined: “care for people cannot be separated from care for the land.”
All are invited to the Marquee’s event. There is no admission charge, but seating in the lobby area of the Marquee is limited. Guests are requested to reserve a seat by responding to the event on the Marquee’s Facebook page. To view the film’s trailer, check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGIK24N7apQ
Marquee, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit effort. Our mission is: To create a dynamic cultural hub in the heart of downtown Winfield for social, artistic, educational, and business gatherings by restoring and transforming the historic Winfield Fox Theatre into a state-of-the-art facility that connects and serves the people of Winfield and South-Central Kansas. For more information on the Marquee’s Green Screen summer film series or about Marquee, please visit www.marqueepac.org or contact the Marquee office at 620-402-6688.