Big river A King Corn companion

Big River is not really a stand-alone documentary but rather a short companion piece to King Corn (LJ 9/15/08). In the latter film, friends Ellis and Ian Cheney planted an acre of corn in Iowa and showed the viewer exactly what goes into producing the American food chain. Here, they return to Iowa and follow the nearby water supply to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, they learn about the effect their pesticide use may have had on the environment, from fertilizer runoff in rivers to a cancer cluster in Iowa to a sea life "dead zone" in the Gulf. Big River is only 29 minutes long, and while it can be appreciated on its own, a "classroom version" of King Corn (50 min.) is included here. A film such as A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms (LJ 10/1/10) is better produced and more substantial. If King Corn is already in your collection, it should suffice; optional. More at www.bigriverfilm.com.-Manya Shorr, Sacramento P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 9 Up-Filmmakers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis present a follow-up to their award-winning documentary, King Corn (SLJ, Aug. 2008, p. 60), which chronicled the planting and harvesting of one acre of corn, and its transformation and utilization in America's food. In Big River, they follow the path of herbicides used on their acre of corn and explore how chemicals impact the lives of farmers from Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico. Farmers, scientists, professors, and fisherman are interviewed. Traveling by canoe, the filmmakers track the runoff water from their Iowa corn acre into its watershed to the Mississippi River. Along the way, they learn that top soil is disappearing from the farms and farmers are using more chemicals to replace the lost nutrients. Their visit to a factory that manufactures anhydrous ammonia is intriguing, especially when viewers are reminded of the negative health effects of such chemicals. At the mouth of the Mississippi, the filmmakers visit the Dead Zone, so called because of the lack of aquatic life. Fish can't live in these waters because all the oxygen has been eradicated by the chemicals flowing down river from the farms. Viewers are asked to consider the long-range consequences of using chemicals and the resulting loss of human and animal life. An edited version of King Corn is included. Science and current events classes can utilize this program, and it should be added to all environmental collections.-Patricia Ann Owens, Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Mt. Carmel, IL Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.