Standing up for the Flint Hills; Filmmakers document endangered tallgrass prairie

Kansas City filmmakers Aimee Larrabee and John Altman originally wanted to make an artful little movie celebrating the beauty of the Flint Hills that cover much of eastern Kansas. "I loved that landscape much more than the mountains or seashore," Larrabee said. "As a little girl, my family would drive through the Flint Hills, and I always found something incredibly peaceful about the place." But if it was peace Larrabee was looking for, making this film probably wasn't the way to find it. During the course of six years, she and Altman, her partner in Inland Sea Productions, saw their modest project grow into a hard-hitting examination of a vanishing ecosystem. The result is a one-hour special, "Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie," that makes its debut at 9 tonight on KCPT and Topeka's KTWU and nationally on PBS stations starting Friday. In addition to containing sweeping, hauntingly beautiful shots of the Flint Hills, the film is scored with music by Kansas City area musicians and punctuated with on-camera appearances by local ranchers and American Indians. With the help of his famous filmmaking cousin Robert Altman, John Altman secured the talents of musician/actor Lyle Lovett, who introduces and concludes the film and contributes songs. Actor Michael Murphy is the narrator. Altman admits that at first he wasn't thrilled about his partner's passion for the Flint Hills. "It was like, 'So we're making a film about grass growing. Great. Next week we'll make one about paint drying,' " he said during a recent interview at Inland Sea's offices in the West Bottoms. But, Altman said, "once you get off the interstate and become immersed in the tallgrass landscape, the beauty starts to get to you." The tallgrass prairie, which once stretched abundantly across the middle of America, a thousand miles from tip to tail, is now a fraction of that size, and scientists and ecologists quoted in the film call it the most endangered ecosystem on the continent. It has been described as North America's "lungs," pulling carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air and, through the alchemy of plant physiology, transforming them into black, nutrient-rich soil. The tallgrass prairie was, throughout the '70s and '80s, the object of rancorous debate over how it should be managed. Going in, the filmmakers said, they assumed the prairie was meant to grow untouched, that it shouldn't be grazed upon by the cattle found on today's Flint Hills ranches. But when they interviewed grassland scientists for the film, they were told that those ideas were no longer taken seriously, that grazing and the frequent burning-off of dry vegetation actually prevent the tallgrass prairie from becoming a woodland. "We looked for a long time for a spokesman to represent the leave-the-praire-alone viewpoint," Larrabee said. "And we couldn't find that person." She said that "even groups like the Nature Conservancy and the Land Institute now agree that burning and grazing is needed to preserve the prairie." "They're actually going back to the methods of the original Native American inhabitants who observed nature and then followed its rules," Larrabee said. The Indians of the plains found that buffalo preferred munching on the shoots of tender young grass. So they would set fires to burn off the mature grasses that covered up the shoots. "That not only attracted the buffalo, but over 10,000 years their methods may have tripled the size of the tallgrass prairie," Larrabee said. "Last Stand" is divided into five acts, each with its own unique soundtrack. UMKC Conservatory of Music graduate student John Mistler composed the score and integrated songs from the film's three featured performers: Lovett and area musicians Connie Dover and Roger Landes. The first act is an overview of how the prairies formed millions of years ago. This leads to a somewhat longer discussion of the period when indigenous peoples followed the bison as they migrated across the tallgrass. Dover lends her song "I'm Going to the West" to the next act, in which European settlers arrive, war with the Indians, kill off the bison and plow much of the prairie, sparing only the rocky terrains of Kansas and Oklahoma. Landes adds instrumentals on the acoustic guitar and bouzouki, and Dover sings "Home on the Range" accompanied by an old-fashioned piano, a tune recorded especially for this film. In Act 4, an ode to present-day ranchers, Lovett serenades us with a cowboy song. The final act looks to the future and the way scientists are using data to help manage prairie lands, not only in the United States but in other regions with fragile grasslands. "Last Stand" also features interviews with Sioux tribal elders, who discuss their feelings toward the prairie. As a sign of how potentially combustible the dry subject matter of tallgrass can be, the filmmakers said it took months before they found either ranchers or American Indians who would talk in front of the camera. They feel "they've been attacked or misinterpreted so often that they're reluctant to expose themselves," Altman said. "Initially I just put my camera away and let Aimee talk to them." The film will go on a 20-city tour as part of a Smithsonian Institution exhibit on the tallgrass prairie, and there's a two-hour version of the documentary waiting in the wings for airing later this year on cable. There's also a companion coffee table book, too, just out. Despite numerous grants and corporate support, Altman and Larrabee are still in the red on the project. Other films they have made for corporate sponsors have helped to fund this one. Ultimately, with sales of videos and cable bookings, they hope to show a modest profit. To reach Robert W. Butler, movie editor for The Star, call (816) 234-4760 or send e-mail to bbutler@kcstar.com. Aaron Barnhart can be reached through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CREDIT:Courtesy Inland Sea Productions @ART CAPTION:Singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett on the set of 'Last Stand on the Tallgrass Prairie' @ART CREDIT:HATTIE BARHAM/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:Kansas City filmmakers John Altman and Aimee Larrabee in their Inland Sea Productions office. Their film "Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie" airs on PBS tonight. @ART CREDIT:Geri Bauer Photographics Inc. @ART CAPTION:"Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie" was filmed over five years in the Flint Hills of Kansas. This prairie once covered a third of North America. @ART CAPTION:Film music includes performances by singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett, left, folk singer Connie Dover, guitarist Roger Landes and Native American flutists. @ART:Photos (4, color and b/w) @ART CAPTION:Historic range of tallgrass prairie @ART:Graphic (map) @ART CREDIT:The Kansas City Star >>> CORRECTION: The photographer who took the photos of the tallgrass prairie was misidentified in the April 17 FYI section. The photographer was Brian Turner.