Two acclaimed documentary film production companies are teaming up to chronicle an unlikely contender in the battle to halt climate change: soil. A co-production of The Big Picture Ranch (Fuel, The Big Fix, Pump) and Benenson Productions (Dirt! The Movie, The Hadza: Last of the First), Kiss the Ground will be produced by Josh Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell and Bill Benenson. Josh and Rebecca Tickell are directing. Laurie Benenson, Anna Getty and Michelle Lerach are executive producing.
The film is inspired by a collaboration with the California-based nonprofit organization Kiss the Ground, a champion for regenerative living and the restoration of soil worldwide. Their work is generating awareness through media, education and policy, encouraging participation from individuals, farmers, communities and governments to build back healthy soil.
Kiss the Ground will look at how soil – and the microbial universe that it houses – is the foundation for all life above ground. Every plant and animal directly depends on the biological and chemical exchanges between the trillions of organisms that live underground. The film also looks at soil’s role in combating drought, especially in California and Australia where desertification threatens critical food production.
"This feature length documentary will delve into the lives of passionate scientists, farmers, ranchers, activists and policymakers who are on the front lines of the battle to save the world’s soils,” says Josh Tickell. “It’s through their eyes and daily struggles that the audience will experience the passion, commitment and hope generated by a solution that is at once so complex and so simple – solution that has eluded us because it is in a place nobody thought to look – right under our feet. We’re honored to be working with Bill Benenson and his band of dirt-loving filmmakers.”
"The degradation of the planet’s soil is the challenge of our lifetimes and we’re thrilled to partner with the superb documentarians Josh and Rebecca Tickell,” says Benenson, who was an executive producer on Beasts of No Nation. “We delved into this dilemma with our film Dirt! The Movie and we’re thrilled to update and widen the discussion including the science behind soil’s ability to sequester never before imagined quantities of CO2.”
Big Picture Ranch www.bigpictureranch.com
Benenson Productions www.benensonproductions.com