Dirt! The Movie

Every year, an amazing thing happens in the Comox Valley: The World Community Film Festival.  Now in it's 20th year, this two-day festival showcases social justice and sustainability documentaries from around the world.  Personally, I am eager to see this one: Dirt! The Movie.

For many years, "dirt" has been a four letter word, often describing a substance that offered us nothing but illness-inducing germs.  While I was studying Horticulture, me and my fellow students were encouraged to refer to it not as dirt but as "soil."

Now, we are becoming more aware of how hyper-sanitary conditions can often be more detrimental to our health than slightly "soiled" ones.  Not only that, we are once again learning how being in physical contact with soil/dirt, touching it, inhaling it, actually benefits our well-being in so many ways.

Although not Horticultural Therapy per se, Dirt! reveals how connected we are as a people and a planet to the very substance we are in essence born from.  Our disconnect to this basic yet complex element of existence threatens our food security, our relationship with nature, and our relationship with one another.

To quote the gentleman in the film: "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt."