Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book “Silent Spring” is considered a cornerstone of the environmental movement, will be the subject of the film “A Sense of Wonder” scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the McManus Room of the Westport Public Library.
Free and open to the public, it is being sponsored by the library in conjunction with Westport’s Green Village Initiative (GVI), a grass roots organization stated in Fall 2008 to begin global environmental change at the local level.
It is the first of five events that GVI and the library have scheduled throughout April.
The film which debuted with a 100-city tour last March in conjunction with Women’s History Month, choreographs Carson’s last year of life as she battles cancer and the chemical industry.
Directed by Christopher Monger, “A Sense of Wonder: Rachel Carson’s Love for the Natural World and Her Fight to Defend It,” was filmed at Carson’s cabin in Maine. It stars Kaiulani Lee, who wrote the script, and is directed by Christopher Monger.
Carson, who began her environmental writing in 1958 at age 50, has been called “a patron saint” of environmentalism. Pulitzer Prize-winning “Silent Spring,” which still stirs controversy, has been credited not only with the banning of DDT but the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Tuesday’s showing will be followed by a lecture by David Brown, an environmental toxicologist and a Fairfield University adjunct professor of Ethics in the Environment.
