NC Zoo Hosts Documentary Screening

ASHEBORO, NC - The North Carolina Zoo will host a free screening of the new film Green Fire on Thursday, May 24, at the Sunset Theater in Asheboro at 7:30 p.m.

The film, Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time, is the first full-length, high-definition documentary ever made about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold. It explores Leopold's life in the early 20th century and the many ways his land-ethic idea continues to be applied all over the world today.

The film shares highlights from Leopold's life and extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation in the 20th century and still inspires people today. Although probably best known as the author of the conservation classic A Sand County Almanac, Leopold is also renowned for his work as an educator, philosopher, forester, ecologist and wilderness advocate.

"Aldo Leopold's legacy lives on today in the work of people and organizations across the nation and around the world," said Aldo Leopold Foundation Executive Director Buddy Huffaker. "What is exciting about Green Fire is that it is more than just a documentary about Aldo Leopold; it also explores the influence his ideas have had in shaping the conservation movement as we know it today by highlighting some really inspiring people and organizations doing great work to connect people and the natural world in ways that even Leopold might not have imagined."

To give the film its modern perspective of Leopold's influence in the conservation movement today, Curt Meine--the film's on-screen guide and director of conservation biology and history at the Center for Humans and Nature--was charged with conducting hundreds of interviews with people practicing conservation all over the country.

"Meeting all those people has really yielded new connections between Leopold and nearly every facet of the environmental movement, including ocean conservation, urban gardening and climate change-issues that Leopold never directly considered in his lifetime but has nonetheless affected as his ideas are carried on by others," Meine said.

The film, shown in community screening venues since 2011, is a production of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the US Forest Service and the Center for Humans and Nature.

For more information on the screening, contact Bob Langston or Meredith Smildsin at 336.879.7000 or email them at [email protected] or [email protected], respectively.

The zoo is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment & Natural Resources, Dee Freeman, Secretary; Beverly Eaves Perdue, Governor.

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