Filming with Geoff Lawton

Posted by admin on Jul 3, 2010 in Permaculture | 0 comments

Filming with Geoff Lawton on his forthcoming Permaculture Soils DVD is not without its amusing moments. We were filming a segment on community markets and were packing up the camera when Geoff spotted the guttering on this disused old graffiti-lined toilet block in a sports field where the markets were held.

“I bet you there’s some really good soil up there!” he said as he proceeded to run his hand along the guttering and pull out a clod of dirt.

Now looking in unusual cavities is probably something you don’t normally do or take an active interest in. But being Geoff Lawton and an active Permaculture teacher with an unusual vision of the world does make this event seem slightly out of the ordinary.

As we set up the camera to shoot this segment we had a number of people returning from the markets suddenly stop and stare at what Geoff was doing.

The fact that a reasonably large camera was filming his activities made it even more curious.

“What on earth is he doing?”

“Have you got a possum up there?” asked one lady concerned at our activities.

“No not at all.” we replied.

Another person walked past and yelled out to the crowd. “They’re filming this toilet to complain to the council about the state of the broken guttering!”

That seemed plausible, but not our intention.

Its amazing that people paid not the slightest bit of interest of what Geoff was holding in his hand.

Beautiful rich moist compost pulled from the guttering of a toilet block that had stood there for years.

No one watching understood the significance.

Finally someone came up and asked us what were we up to?

Geoff quietly remarked we were filming a documentary on Soil.

“Oh! Dirt!”

The disappointment on their faces was visible. People turned and walked away. You might have told them that you were shooting the most boring subject under the sun.

Yet when we were chatting about it later we realized that this Soils DVD is one of the best stories we had worked on for some years and possibly the cornerstone of what Permaculture was all about. A fascinating adventure into microbes and soil fertility and food and what it means to live, eat and survive as a species!