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Filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia wants to make the world more soil conscious. Her latest documentary, “Symphony of the Soil,” was recently screened at the United Nations in New York to mark the launch of the 2015 International Year of Soils, which seeks to promote global awareness about the profound importance of healthy soil for human life.
“The film is an official part of the year,” says Koons Garcia, who is the widow of legendary Grateful Dead guitarist/singer Jerry Garcia. “It’s been shown all over the world.”
Partially filmed in Hawaii, this remarkable, must-see documentary will be screened Friday at the McCoy Studio Theater at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center as part of The Merwin Conservancy’s Green Room Series.
Shot over four years, “Symphony of the Soil” has been widely praised.
“Unfolding with gentle joy and an unexpected beauty, this ode to the miracle of the Earth’s topmost layer gives us a newfound respect for the ground beneath our feet,” lauded The New York Times.
“Artfully made and full of engaging, very smart people, the doc is eye-opening enough to have some niche theatrical appeal and should enjoy a long life on video and in classrooms,” praised The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is a follow-up to her other well-received documentary, “The Future of Food,” which examined the impact of genetically modified organisms.
“I have a long-time interest in healthy food and agricultural systems,” she explains. “I made ‘The Future of Food,’ which was the first film to really look at changes in the agricultural industry, including GMOs. I thought I’d do something in the same realm, and I chose soil, which I didn’t know much about.”
Koons Garcia is a passionate environmentalist who shared a love for film with her late husband. “The great thing about Jerry was he knew a lot about film,” she reports. “He was a real film buff and we shared that. He took me to see a bunch of films he liked because of the musical treatment. He wanted me to appreciate that as a strong element. And he was very supportive of me as a filmmaker. He didn’t get a chance to do it, but he wanted to make some music films.”
Koons Garcia fell in love with filmmaking when she first picked up a camera while a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1970. She went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her film work includes the feature “Poco Loco.”
More recently, she was instrumental in getting the “Grateful Dawg” documentary made, which traces the friendship and musical collaboration between Garcia and mandolin virtuoso David Grisman.
“I saw David Grisman in the bank one day when I was running Jerry’s estate and said, ‘We should do something about your and Jerry’s musical friendship,’ ” she explains. “I had full approval rights control and I chose his daughter Gillian to direct it, and I wanted full songs in the film, not little bits of the music. It did really well and people loved it.”
While compiling her latest documentary, she also made a bunch of shorts she called “Sonatas of the Soil.” One of them, “Soil in Good Heart,” features the song “Dawg’s Waltz,” played by her husband and Grisman.
“I was exposed to a lot of wonderful music because of Jerry, and I’m a great believer in music being an important part of the filmgoing experience,” she says. With ‘Soil,’ it was a great opportunity for music to carry the information. A lot of documentaries, the music is this weird electronic stuff. When I came up with the title, I realized how much fun it would be to really work with the music (composed by Todd Boekelheide) and have that create an emotional connection to soil. It enhances what a miraculous substance soil is.”
Filmed around the world including Norway, Egypt and India, the doc includes some fascinating footage shot in Hawaii, where we get to marvel at scenes exploring soil age ranging from 50 years and 350,000 years to 4 million years old.
“I met a lot of soil scientists and they’d say a great place to study the life cycle of soil is Hawaii,” she reports. “We got Peter Vitousek from Stanford and Oliver Chadwick from U.C. Santa Barbara to tramp around the Big Island filming, and we ended up on Kauai. It really allows people to understand soil is alive and has different ages.”
Hoping to enhance our understanding of this precious resource, she concludes, “Most people are soil blind, so my goal was to move people to being soil conscious, and make them understand that soil is an amazing gift that has allowed us to live on this planet, and that it’s in peril and if we keep farming the way we are, we will be out of top soil in 50 or 60 years. There’s no reason why we can’t eat more organically and have healthy food. We don’t need all these toxins and GMOs. If we farm more organically, it will also help with global warming and water use.”
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With a goal of continuing to help perpetuate Hawaiian music and culture through film, George Kahumoku Jr. and David Barry of Makai Studios are teaming once again to produce two new documentaries this year.
Their “Masters of Hawaiian Music Film Series” has so far produced the films “Seeds of Aloha” and “Richard Ho’opi’i: The Timeless Voice.” Their latest work, “Dennis Kamakahi: The Legend of Grey Wolf,” on the late Hawaiian legend, will be released in April.
“Continuing with Uncle George’s desire to document, through film, the lives and musical careers of his friends and peers, the masters of Hawaiian music, Uncle George and I wish to create two new films from the unique perspective of the artists themselves,” Barry explains.
Martin Pahinui and Brother Noland are the two musicians who will be profiled in 2015. One of Hawaiian music’s most gifted vocalists, Pahinui has performed with a host of top artists, including his father’s legendary Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, the Peter Moon Band and slack-key super group Hui Aloha.
“Our second film will feature composer, innovator, author and traditional Hawaiian man Brother Noland,” says Barry. “Brother Noland has deeply influenced Hawaiian music and is considered the father of Jawaiian music. Yet he remains in touch with traditional Hawaiian music and cultural roots.”
A Kickstarter campaign has been initiated to hopefully raise $60,000 to make both films. This method was used successfully to fund their previous “Masters of Hawaiian Music Series” projects, with more than 500 people contributing last year.
“To tell these stories, we need to visit many locations to bring to life where these artists lived and created music,” Barry continues. “Principle photography for these films will take us to several of the Hawaiian islands including Maui, Oahu, Hawaii, Molokai and the continental U.S., as we film the artists and catch up with some of their contemporaries.”
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HAPA has also initiated a Kickstarter campaign. Founder Barry Flanagan wants to record a new studio CD and concert DVD and is seeking community financial support.
“It has become a challenge for musicians to go the extra mile with the recording process,” says Flanagan. “Costs have risen dramatically and the market for recorded music has diminished. Very few artists in this day and age can devote the resources required to produce and present quality new music.”
Having raised enough for the album project, Flanagan is looking to raise funds by the end of March to film their “Polynesian ‘Riverdance’-size show with a cast of 60,” he explains. “We’ve done it in Japan and twice in Redondo Beach.”
HAPA is currently touring the Mainland with a new member, award-winning singer and multi-instrumentalist Kapono Na’ili’ili. A native Hawaiian speaker, chanter and hula dancer, Na’ili’ili plays guitar, percussion and cello. He won the Richard Ho’opi’i Falsetto Contest in 2007.
“It’s really exciting,” says Flanagan. “He’s so multitalented, he’s lighting all of us up. We’re already writing songs together.”
As for Ron Kuala’au, he will perform with HAPA when they play some Maui shows in the summer. Check HAPA’s website for more details.