Terraforming Iowa - (Concept Short)
By many accounts, Iowa is the most transformed landscape in the U.S. Two hundred years ago, 80% of its land was tallgrass prairie, rich with wildlife and wetlands. Today, less than one tenth of one percent remains. The land has been plowed, drained, and chemically managed into vast industrial farms. Much of the original topsoil and biodiversity are gone, replaced by endless rows of corn and soy beans sustained by inputs that further degrade the soil. Iowa has been terraformed—and the results are troubling.
The term “terraforming” comes from science fiction and refers to reshaping a hostile planet to make it habitable—like Elon Musk’s plans for Mars. I call my film Terraforming Iowa to provoke reflection on the scale and irony of this transformation. Those who reshaped the land aimed for paradise but instead created a biologically devastated environment. One farmer in Ames put it bluntly: “It’s probably too late for Iowa, John.”
Still, I resist dystopian storytelling. The pristine Iowa of the past is gone, and the land will remain central to large-scale food production. Yet, there are Iowans working toward a more restorative future. My film will highlight their voices—prophetic witnesses to what healing might still be possible.
The Last Prairie
The Last Prairie is a film about the Nebraska Sandhills, a vast grassland in Nebraska. Its 20,000 square miles comprise the largest area of stabilized sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere and it has been recently described as the most intact temperate grassland on earth.
The film offers an intimate portrait of the Sandhills, presented through voices of three different communities: ecologists who study the region’s biodiversity; people who live and work there; and Native Lakota people whose ancestors were killed to make way for American westward expansion. The Sandhills, however, is the main character, and the primary voice.
THL 471: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
What happens when two eighty-something Jesuits teach a class on the Spiritual Exercises to college seniors? Nothing short of magic!
Stargazers
At the Nebraska Star Party, gazing at a dark, starry sky during a new moon is a revelation of mystery.
Bishop Vince: A Monumental Life
This is a biographical film about the remarkable life of missionary bishop Vincent McCauley, Servant of God.
Tokimane
Tokimane is a short documentary film about a trip that a team from Creighton University took to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in January, 2013. The film profiles the Catholic diocese of Tshumbe and the efforts of some remarkable people to rebuild after catastrophic war. Among those profiled are Nicolas Djomo, the charismatic bishop of the diocese, a religious woman trying to build a new university and a young woman doctor who cares for the sick in the midst of extreme poverty.