Dirt Movie Dirt is a documentary film about, as the title suggests, dirt. It may seem funny to make a whole movie about dirt, but as the filmmakers show, the dirt we take for granted in the ground is the foundation of all life. The movie was based on a book that describes dirt as "the skin of the earth," which is one way of looking at this surface material. Like skin, the dirt breathes. It is like the surface organ of the planet. As such, dirt needs to be respected. The film, narrated by food activist and actor Jamie Lee Curtis, elevates dirt to a political level by showing how modern agro-business has neutered or killed dirt, rendering parts of the globe infertile.

Dirt is not "dirty" in the sense that it is unclean. Rather, dirt is filled with energy and potency. People who have gardens are at least partly in tune with the nature of dirt as the building block of life. The dirt contains the nutrients that nourish

Moreover, those nutrients are created in dirt via the processes of decomposition. Maggots and other elements of decomposition are unsightly but fascinating. Dirt, or soil, is much more than the "dirtiness" that human beings ascribe to it.
The film shows how dirt is practically alive, in that it is a hotbed of life in constant flux. Nitrogen and other nutrients permeate the soil, produced by the processes of decomposition. This is why the film also goes into the mechanics of composting, showing how organic waste is turned into nutrient-rich soil. I thought about how much organic waste is genuinely wasted by being tossed into a regular garbage bin. From this film, I learned how to respect dirt and think more about the cycles of life. I also learned to respect the diversity of dirt. What the French call terroir, in relation to the earth that imparts special aromas and flavors to wine, is really just about dirt. Each area has dirt that is composed of different minerals. This is all depending on the local geology, and also the local flora…