Soil is the unlikely lead of Kiss the Ground, an American documentary from 2020 that asks whether the ground under our feet could help steady the climate. Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell direct, and a line-up of well-known faces, Woody Harrelson among them, lends the argument its voice.
What is Kiss the Ground about?
At the heart of the documentary is an alternative way of farming known as regenerative agriculture. Where conventional methods tend to wear the land out, this approach aims to rebuild it, and the filmmakers attach three large promises to that idea: a more balanced climate, replenished water supplies and enough food for the whole world. To make the case, the camera moves among the people already working on it. Activists, scientists, farmers and politicians appear as parts of one loose, worldwide movement that grew from the ground up, each approaching the same problem from a different side. The result plays as an explanation and an invitation at once, laying out what the practice is, why its supporters believe it matters and what a wider adoption might change.
About the cast
Directing credit is shared by Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. The names attached to the documentary are Woody Harrelson, David Arquette, Gisele Bündchen, Rosario Dawson, Jason Mraz, Ian Somerhalder and Patricia Arquette. That mix of actors, a model and a musician gives an environmental subject a public profile it might not otherwise reach, alongside the farmers and researchers who carry the practical side.
Context & significance
Kiss the Ground runs 84 minutes, a compact length for a documentary with this much ground to cover, and it has been warmly received by audiences. It belongs to a strand of environmental filmmaking that focuses on a proposed solution instead of only cataloguing damage, which makes its tone more hopeful than many climate documentaries. Viewers do not need a science background; the subject is introduced from first principles. It suits anyone curious about food, farming and climate, and it works well as a starting point for family or classroom conversation about where food comes from and how land is treated.
Watching Kiss the Ground on Ktime
K-Time offers Kiss the Ground with a Persian dub as well as Persian subtitles, so the narration and interviews can be followed comfortably in Farsi. This page is free to read, while playback needs a K-Time account login. The service is designed around Persian-speaking viewers outside Iran, with menus and browsing in Farsi.