![]() ![]() How would you define a cultural landscape? Today, such figures are in short supply – and it’s a time when we need them most. This past Earth Day, when we were preparing for the film’s premiere in Chicago’s magnificent Millennium Park, provided the perfect moment to reflect upon the prescience of Jensen’s ideas that have the power to inspire a generation to become conservation heroes. ![]() As a filmmaker, I need to fall in love with my subject, after all I have to wake up with it, eat with it, drink with it, stay awake nights thinking of it, for several years. Most landscape architects know Jensen as the creator of the Prairie style of landscape architecture, but the reason I fell in love with his story was because of his extraordinary conservation work. And he did it without knowing the language or having a penny in his pocket. Jensen rose from street sweeper to “dean of landscape architects” (New York Times) and pioneering conservationist. when it was first industrializing and to Chicago when it was considered the worst place on Earth to live. Before long I found myself making my first feature documentary, Jens Jensen The Living Green, about this Danish immigrant who came to the U.S. ![]() His actions, philosophy and work spoke to me at a root level. Like Jensen, I lived both in Chicago and in Wisconsin’s back woods. I never really thought much about landscapes until I found the story of Jens Jensen. ![]()
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