Women and Girls Lead Presents a Social Screening of Taking Root

Join us for an online social screening of Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai this Wednesday, March 14th at 1pm PT/4pm ET.

The event, which takes place exclusively online, will feature special guests Lisa Merton, director of Taking Root, Kelly Blynn, co-coordinator of 350.org, and Stephen Millls, director of Greenbelt Movement US. Participants can join for free by signing in with Facebook or directly on the site and interact with other viewers and the panelists in real-time, while watching the film. Viewers can comment, ask questions, take polls, and even express their feelings about what they’re watching through a variety of tools on the site. This is an entirely new way of experiencing documentary films and it is inherently social.

Taking Root: MARCH 14, 2012, 1pm PT/4pm ET 

Presented in partnership with 350.org and the Greenbelt Movement

To participate in this screening click this link. 

Three decades ago, Wangari Maathai suggested to rural women in her native Kenya that they plant trees for firewood and to stop soil erosion — an act that grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, defend human rights, and fight government injustice. The tree-planting groups that formed gave the women a reason to come together and become involved in resolving their communities’ challenges. 

Using archival footage and first-person accounts, Taking Root documents dramatic political confrontations of 1980s and 1990s Kenya and captures Maathai’s infectious determination and unwavering courage through in-depth conversations with the film’s subjects. This online social screening is part of a month long online film festival presented by Women and Girls Lead featuring a collection of documentary films by prominent independent filmmakers. These films showcase extraordinary women and girls on the front lines of changing the world. 

To learn more about the Women and Girls Lead initiative, click here.