On her inspiration to do this documentary with her husband, Josh, she said, “Everything we’ve ever done has led us to this project. We’ve made 13 documentaries together in the last 13 years. The subjects that we focused on were solution-oriented such as issues with the environment and tackling climate change.”
She continued, “In 2012, we found out about soil regeneration and regenerative agriculture, and we realized that this is a viable solution: soil regeneration is the single most actionable thing we can do as human beings to reverse climate change.”
“It took us seven years, and we knew it was going to be hard. We had to tell this story, and we wanted the film to be worthy of how powerful we realized this message is. We wanted to give people a broad view of how soil regeneration works,” she added.
One of the most moving segments in the documentary was the testimony (and subsequent success story) of regenerative rancher Gabe Brown. “The rancher resonates with everyone, and that is hard to do these days,” she said.
“We became soil geeks as a result of this film. We are the people that you want to avoid at a party because you will get stuck in a conversation about mycorrhizal fungi,” she said with a sweet laugh.
On being a filmmaker in the digital age, at a time that streaming is so popular, Tickell said, “It’s 2020. I don’t think this year has gone the way anybody has expected. We wanted to premiere the film at Tribeca on Earth Day, and we just couldn’t imagine New York would shut down. The unimaginable happened with the pandemic.”
“I do like the digital age a lot,” she admitted. “It’s different because people are showing up at drive-ins all over the world. It has been amazing to watch our film come out around the world all at once, and seeing people from so many different cultures unifying around the idea of regeneration. That has been super exciting.”
“People still find ways to be together even during this crazy and challenging time. People have found the message of Kiss the Ground to be really hopeful,” she added.
For young and aspiring filmmakers, she encouraged them to “find the thing that you are really passionate about, the subjects and the stories that really move you.”
“This film has the power to change the world, and to create whole movements, and to change global mindsets. You need to be unstoppable to make films, and you need to be unstoppable to create a movement, in an effort to change the world,” she said.
On the title of the current chapter of her life, she responded, “Regeneration.” “It’s not about sustainability anymore and maintaining the status quo, it’s about regeneration and leaving things better than we found them,” she said.
“My two children are seventh-generation farmers, and they are learning to be regenerative farmers,” she added.
This documentary is available for streaming on Netflix. “Check us out. Anyone can participate in this glorious regeneration movement. I think that young people will be the biggest champions of regeneration because it really is their future. Thanks to everybody for watching Kiss the Ground,” Tickell concluded.
For more information on the movie Kiss the Ground, check out its official website.
Read More: Kiss the Ground earned a favorable review from Digital Journal.