Independent Film to Examine Nature-Deficit Disorder

The Oregonian – May 08, 2008
By Rebecca Koffman

• [>] watch the 'Play Again' trailer at Ground Productions

Do your children play outside? Do they know where to watch ants on the march or find a good climbing tree? Or are they inside, parked in front of a screen? Most important, what's in store for kids -- and society -- when children are cut off from nature?

These are urgent questions for two Portland moms, Tonje Hessen Schei of Sunnyside and Meg Merrill of Multnomah Village, who are making a documentary, "Play Again," that explores a culture in which the average child recognizes more than 100 corporate logos but can't name 10 plants.

Their efforts join a groundswell of concern prompted by the 2005 book "Last Child in the Woods," in which author Richard Louv describes a "nature-deficit disorder."

Norway native Hessen Schei, 37 and married with two children, traces "Play Again" to the startling realization that many American children are awash in media and that her two daughters were much more removed from nature than she was as a child. She began devouring books on the subject.

"When I realized just how much we were up against, I decided to make a film about it," says Hessen Schei, the director. Merrill, 40 and also married with two children, quickly signed on as producer.

So far, they're about halfway through filming, with plans to release the film in fall 2009. "Our first priority is to get it onto television," says Hessen Schei.

They've interviewed dozens of experts, including Louv, who spoke in Portland in March on the importance of parks, and in Sherwood in April for the dedication of a new wildlife center; and economist Juliet Schor, whose book "Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture" shows how corporations target young children.

The experts blame increasing screen time for rising rates of childhood obesity, depression and attention disorders. The film also poses a broader question, says Hessen Schei: "Who will look after the Earth if our kids are disconnected from the natural world?"

Merrill adds: "I'll never forget what Charles Jordan said when we interviewed him," referring to the Conservation Fund chairman and former Portland city commissioner and Parks Bureau director. " 'What you don't value you will not protect, and what you don't protect you will lose.' "

The women, who met in 2000 when they were neighbors in Southeast, lead an 11-member film crew. Hessen Schei has worked in documentaries since 1996 and made the award-winning "Independent Intervention" in 2006 about U.S. media coverage of the Iraq war. Merrill, new to film work, is an administrative social worker.

Their next step is to raise money to finish it. They recently won a $5,000 grant from Keen Footwear and have other grant applications in the works. Then they'll film middle and high school kids, recruited with help from schools, for whom the battle between the natural and virtual worlds rages at a fever pitch.

"It's critical to hear the voices of the kids themselves," says Hessen Schei, "to allow them to teach us what media mean in their lives."

"We also want to give them time in nature," says Merrill. "Not nature education, but nature experience; the chance to experience that sense of wonder."

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