When scientist Rachel Carson published her pioneering environmental book Silent Spring in 1962, the backlash from her critics thrust her into the center of a political maelstrom. Despite her private persona, her convictions about the risks posed by chemical pesticides forced her into the role of controversial public figure. Using many of Carson's own words, Kaiulani Lee embodies this extraordinary woman in A Sense of Wonder, set and shot (by no less a luminary than Oscar winning, legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler) on Southport Island on the Maine coast, principally around the actual cottage in which Carson lived and loved nature. Struggling with cancer, Carson recounts with both humor and anger the attacks by the chemical industry, the government and the press as she focuses her limited energy to get her message to Congress and the American people. The film is an intimate and poignant reflection of Carson's life, and she emerges as America's most successful advocate for the natural world. Suffused with the rich beauty of our state, more timely than ever in its realization of the peril the natural world is in, A Sense of Wonder is based on the play that Kaiulani Lee has been touring with for several decades. It's both an important warning about our environment and a gorgeous celebration of its beauty-and of the wisdom and foresight of one extraordinary woman who understands its value.

Sponsored by L.L. Bean

« Back to films