Thoreau documentary asks us to reclaim our humanity
The premiere of the new PBS documentary "Henry David Thoreau" was held at The Studios at Paramount in Los Angeles on March 11. Photo by Timothy Norris
The premiere of a new three-part PBS documentary about Henry David Thoreau drew a distinguished crowd to The Studios at Paramount in Los Angeles on March 11. The screening and panel discussion touched on education, technology and democracy.
"Henry David Thoreau" makes an impassioned argument for the importance of humanities — and for ASU's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, which will host the film's Arizona premiere in April, the evening offered a preview of exactly the kind of discourse it was built to foster.
The event was hosted in partnership with The Walden Woods Project and PBS SoCal, and featured a pre-screening reception where guests gathered for open, wide-ranging dialogue about the role of community and the arts in civic life.
Moderating the panel was Lois Brown, ASU Foundation Professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Brown, who appears in the film, brought both scholarly authority and personal investment to the conversation.
“Thoreau’s life and times can teach us much about how to navigate the 21st century,” Brown said.
During the discussion, Don Henley, founding member of the Eagles and founder of The Walden Woods Project, who served as one of the evening's panelists, drew a striking parallel between Thoreau's wariness of the telegraph, which he described as the internet of the 1840s, and our current struggles with screens and distraction.
He pointed out that Thoreau studied Eastern religion including Buddhism at Harvard, disciplines centered entirely on the practice of paying attention.
"We have a real attention deficit problem now in our younger people," Henley said. "He would have said 'I told you so,' starting with the telegraph.
"We have to put more emphasis on the humanities and get them back into the curriculums in school. Without them, we are simply less human."
Co-directors and brothers Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, who will be at ASU for a two-day residency that will include class visits, screening of the film and community dialogues on April 7 and April 8, reflected on their own education surrounding Thoreau.
Both brothers humorously stated that they struggled with a high school paper on the author. One earning a C-minus, the other not turning it in at all.
"The reason Chris and I got a C-minus, and apparently an F, is because we lacked the maturity to understand what Thoreau was trying to convey," Erik Ewers said. "But also, it wasn't being taught in a way that was relatable."
The film, he explained, was deliberately constructed to change that — following Thoreau not as a statue on a pedestal, but as a 26-year-old Harvard graduate who doesn't know what to do with his life, trying to figure it out one step at a time.
"Young people will be able to absorb and benefit from a man who lived two centuries ago, if it is framed in the right context."
The educational reach of PBS was a recurring theme throughout the evening. The network's partnership with schools nationwide, extending film content into classrooms through PBS LearningMedia, was cited as one of the most important reasons public television must be protected and funded.
"That is a reason why public television is important," Henley said.
Panellist Beth Witherell, editor-in-chief of the writings of Henry David Thoreau published by Princeton University Press and one of the world's foremost Thoreau scholars, offered perhaps the evening's most moving tribute to what humanistic study can do.
Having spent over 50 years working with Thoreau's original manuscripts, she described the experience of hearing his words brought to life by skilled actors as a kind of revelation.
"I hear Thoreau's hopefulness," she said. "I hear his rage. I hear his delight. I hear his exhaustion."
The film, she said, transformed figures she had studied on paper into living people.
The film and residency of the directors is part of the center’s yearlong series, Life, Liberty and Pursuits of Happiness, inspired by America’s founding 250 years ago.
Upcoming ASU screenings
'Henry David Thoreau': Film screenings and community dialogues with the Ewers brothers
Tuesday, April 7, 7–9 p.m.
Media and Immersive Experience (MIX) Center, Mesa
Register
Wednesday, April 8, 7–9 p.m.
College Avenue Commons, Tempe campus
Register
Presented by the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy
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