Big River: A King Corn Companion

Director: Curt Ellis
Producer: Curt Ellis and Aaron Woolf
Co-Producer: Ian Cheney, Wicked Delicate Films
Length: 30 minutes, Production Date: 2009
Website: bigriverfilm.com

Synopsis:

Following up on their Peabody winning documentary, the King Corn boys are back. For Big River, best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has sent to the people and places downstream. In a journey that spans from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, Ian and Curt trade their combine for a canoe––and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched. On their trip, flashbacks to the pesticides they sprayed, the fertilizers they injected, and the soil they plowed now lead to new questions, explored by new experts in new places. Half of Iowa’s topsoil, they learn, has been washed out to sea. Fertilizer runoff has spawned a hypoxic “dead zone” in the Gulf. And back at their acre, the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home. Run-time: 27 minutes.

About the Filmmakers:

Curt Ellis is a Food and Society Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the WK Kellogg Foundation.  Prior to directing Big River, Curt co-produced King Corn and produced The Greening of Southie.  He lives in Brooklyn, where he collaborates with Ian on documentary and advocacy projects through their company, Wicked Delicate.

Aaron Woolf has won Rockie, Logie, and Peabody awards for his films.  His documentaries Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball, and the United States, Dying to Leave: The Global Face of Human Trafficking and Smuggling, King Corn, and Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City all aired nationally on PBS. Aaron is also co-founder of the sustainable grocery Urban Rustic and the advocacy organization Food Democracy Now.  

Ian Cheney is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker.  He co-created and appeared in the theatrical hit King Corn and directed the Sundance Channel film The Greening of Southie. Currently finishing work as director of The City Dark, Ian maintains a 20-member CSA, Truck Farm, in the back of his '86 Dodge pickup.