Louisiana Grass Roots
A Fim By Jillian Godshall
Screening and Q&A
Manship Theatre
Baton Rouge
Southern Louisiana used to be covered in 2 ½ million acres of prairie land; due to over grazing and industrialization, only 1 percent of that prairie still exists today. Most people don’t even know it was ever there.
“Louisiana Grass Roots,” a film written and directed by Jillian Godshall, highlights this issue and the people who are trying to save them. The film, beautifully shot and scored, features tall grass and native plants that I didn’t even know were only a little over an hour away from Baton Rouge. The screening at the Manship Theatre played the film and then included a Q&A with Godshall, producer Dr. Phyllis Baudoin Griffard, and some of the scientists featured in the documentary.
The documentary includes many voices from local farmers to researchers. What stands out is the integration of an Indigenous perspective through interviews with writer and researcher Dr. Jeffery Darensbourg, who is an enrolled member of the Atakapa-Ishak Nation of Indians. He tells a story he found in a newspaper about Ishak people warning white colonists in Louisiana that they should tie themselves to specifically prepared trees with vines so they can ride out heavy rains and storms. The white family didn’t listen and drowned. This isn’t just a random anecdote, he explains: Indigenous people are still warning people, especially in Louisiana, about the impacts of climate change.
“It’s still the case that they’re going to drown if they don't listen,” he says in the documentary. “It’s still the case that people aren’t listening.”
In the public sphere, climate communication needs to strike a difficult balance between informing people of an urgent situation that requires action and money and empowering them to take steps to change it without making it seem so dire that it’s hopeless. If you, like me, are finding out about the prairielands, you might feel like you’re just adding something to the laundry list of environmental concerns you’re vaguely worried about — like the wetlands or the state of Louisiana’s aquifers — but don’t feel like you have any control over. Godshall is a self-described regular person like us, and she’s hopeful.
“This has been a really gratifying journey, to be learning from the folks who have dedicated their lives to this ecosystem, in part because I feel empowered,” Godshall said in the Q&A. “I can choose to plant native plants in my yard rather than other types of plants, and that is not a tremendous lift for me, and it’s not super expensive. And I know that it’s a better choice.”
Beyond small actions that make an impact on an individual level, Griffard pointed out that the environmental concerns are interconnected and action to conserve the wetlands, for example, can provide an infrastructure and framework for further environmental protection.
“If we didn’t live in the prairie, if we lived in the mountains or somewhere behind the Savannah, we would be having the same conversation.” she said. “All ecosystems are threatened, so wherever you live, I would urge you to take care of that.”
“Louisiana Grass Roots” does an admirable job of showcasing individual action in the greater context of prairie conservation efforts. The whole set-up of the event is a model of how to help educate and empower their community. Not only did many of the people featured on the panel table out front and meet people as they came in; they had resources available before and after for people to get involved. Viewers will come away with many examples of actions they could take from volunteering to planting pocket prairies on their own property. The film is screening in several other places across Louisiana in the coming weeks; hopefully pockets of prairie follow in their wake.
