MATFIELD GREEN
Mother Nature showed her colors Saturday afternoon and evening, providing everything from summer heat to an early evening thunderstorm during the premiere screening of “Return to PrairyErth” at Pioneer Bluffs near Matfield Green.
Hundreds of people attended the screening of the documentary inspired by William Least Heat-Moon’s book, “PrairyErth (A Deep Map),” which was published nearly 20 years ago and is based on the author’s trip through Chase County in the 1980s.
“Heat-Moon spent much of the 1980s wandering Chase County by foot, exploring its history, meeting its diverse characters and reporting his thoughts in rich, vivid detail,” a press release from film director John O’Hara stated earlier this year. “Heat-Moon believed that Chase County lived in a time warp, a still point near the heart of the nation and worried that their 19th-century ways would one day force them to make a harsh transition to the 21st century. But, nine years into the new century, attitudes have changed and the environmental outlook for Chase County is promising.”
“Return to PrairyErth” was filmed earlier this year on location in Chase County with Heat-Moon. The film was funded through a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council. From start to finish, the film took a year and a half, O’Hara said. This is O’Hara’s second film set in the Flint Hills. He was inspired to do a film on the Flint Hills for a couple of reasons.
“A lot of it was PrairyErth,” he said, adding that he grew up driving the Kansas Turnpike up to Kansas City. “I wanted to know what was beyond the Turnpike.”
O’Hara decided it would be nice to have Heat-Moon in this film to illustrate Chase County’s progress. After Heat-Moon and O’Hara went back and forth by letter, the concept was born and in Chase County on Saturday, the project came full circle.
The film was shown three times Saturday. During the 6 p.m. screening, a crowd of people sat inside the barn and watched the film while the cicadas filled the air outside with their song. The film opened up with a view of an ocean followed by Heat-Moon’s comments about his perception of the Flint Hills.
He said Kansas reminded him of the ocean.
“A beautiful ocean with lots of topography to it,” he said in the film.
Heat-Moon explained his process that led to him writing his first book, “Blue Highways.” He had originally planned to write two articles for National Geographic. The first article he wanted to focus on the back roads of America. He also wanted to write about the Flint Hills, which were five hours from where he lived.
“Chase County by far had the best piece of the Flint Hills,” he said.
“Then life fell apart and I didn’t do either article,” Heat-Moon said.
Instead, Heat-Moon took to the open road for three months and followed the “blue highways” on the map. The book “Blue Highways,” was born on Kansas Highway 13, he said.
Following the publication of “PrairyErth,” Chase County reached the world, the narrator said on the film. Chase County was a 770-square mile neighborhood.
“William Least Heat-Moon wanted to set down a ‘deep map’ of Chase County,” the film’s narrator said.
Heat-Moon said he wanted to dig deep when it came to Chase County. He wanted to show the connection with the land as well.
“If you are connected with the land, you are connected,” he said on the film. “If you are connected to the land, you are connected to the cosmos because the soil comes from the cosmos.”
One aspect of Chase County that struck Heat-Moon was the vastness and the fact that in 774 square miles there were only around 3,000 people, a number that still holds today.
“They have a sustainable population here,” he said, adding that fact is not true in much of the rest of the country.
Another aspect of the county that struck Heat-Moon was on his return visit.
“The county is now prospering in a way that it was not prospering when I first came here,” he said. “I’m pinching myself, and it’s still happening (the changes). So maybe it did happen. Chase County today is an enlightened place and no longer a dark corner of the country.”
Following the second screening of the film, Heat-Moon spoke candidly with audience members with a rolling thunderstorm as a backdrop. Heat-Moon told the audience, who were sitting on hay bales outside the barn, that it took him eight years to write “PrairyErth,” seven of those included coming to Chase County. He said throughout the book, readers are required to participate and make connections.
“I should have put on the cover of the book ‘some assembly required,’” he said.
He said the book either impresses people or it doesn’t.
“PrairyErth is the only book I’ve written that people either love or hate,” he said, adding that there’s no middle ground with the book. “It’s either a train wreck or you love it.”
- People who did not make it to the screening of “Return to PrairyErth” will have another chance in the future. Look for the film’s upcoming premiere on PBS. Information on the date will be published once it’s available.
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Chase County Alert go to YouTube UN Agenda 21 for Dummies.
July 26, 2010 at 6:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )