land and flower is a short film and eulogy of the tallgrass prairie landscape made in remembrance of the lands lost and the flowers that remain.
This land (all land) is both home and habitat; a narrative of balance, interdependence, and co-existence. These native remnants root us in not only the layers of our history, but in our personal identity and connection to place, thus holding our pasts, our peoples, and our hopes for the future seeded in this fertile yet disappearing soil.
Adapted from a poem by Megan Kaminski, land and flower is an artful acknowledgment of the vibrant native prairie, an emergent benediction, and a call to conservation of this rare and endangered ecosystem.
The Kansas City-based strings duo, The Wires compose the original film score.
Funding has been made possible by the Miami County Conservation District and the Puffin Foundation.
land and flower has screened at the Tallgrass Film Festival, Kansas City International Film Festival, WIFI Film Festival, (Nominee: Best Editing/Best Cinematography), Doc Sunback Film Festival (Audience Choice Award), International Flower and Herb Film Festival, Beach Museum of Art, and Kansas City Public Television.
land and flower, installation, quilt, chain, scrap iron, prairie flower bouquets, 2022.
I put together a small picnic on the prairie and installation on the farm for my film, land and flower. The weather gods gifted us with the most sublime and cinematic Kansas day I could've ever dreamed of. There was film, art, poetry, prairie, community, conservation and conversation. It felt so complete and such a perfect way to celebrate the film and honor the prairie remnants.
This image, titled Mother is both metaphor and reminder of the lands lost and the flowers that remain as well as an emergent benediction and call to the conservation and sustainability of the rare and endangered native Tallgrass prairie.
By placing this image within the frame of an urban landscape in the streetcar stop at 17th and Main St. in Kansas City, MO, it serves as a poignant reminder of what came before while paying respect to what has been irrevocably lost.
Selected as part of Art in the Loop, 2022.