WUCF (Website) is bringing the new Ken Burns PBS documentary on Henry David Thoreau to Winter Park this Earth Month, hosting a free community screening and panel discussion at Mead Botanical Garden on Thursday, April 16, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
The event will feature selected clips from Henry David Thoreau, a three-part documentary executive produced by Burns and Don Henley, with narration by George Clooney and Jeff Goldblum. The film explores the 19th-century writer’s environmentalism, social thinking, and philosophy of deliberate living. After the clips, a live panel discussion will connect Thoreau’s experiences at Walden Pond and in the Maine woods to Central Florida’s own wetlands, springs, and native habitats.
The panelists are WUCF Community Education Manager Chris Doucette, Sarafaith Pekor (founder of Seeds of Inclusion), and Dr. Brooke Rudow, assistant professor of philosophy and humanities at UCF.
“When you’re sitting in a place like Mead Garden, you’re not just hearing about Thoreau,” Doucette said. “You’re in the kind of environment he was asking people to pay attention to.”
The event is part of Mead Garden’s Life Explorers Speaker Series and is free and open to the public. WUCF has also developed a free family field guide, activity sheets, and a journal available at wucf.org/Thoreau. Register HERE.
