Magic Mud

Greenlandic rock flour makes the tropics fertile

A documentary film premiered at CPH:DOX in March 2024:

Famous geologist Minik Rosing loves mud. Especially Greenlandic mud, also known as glacial rock flour – but can he prove that this magical mud can really save both the climate and solve global inequality?

The agricultural soil in your country determines your fate. It is the root of much of the world’s inequality, according to Greenlandic geologist Minik Rosing. In many tropical countries, for example, the soil yields are 20-30 percent than in Denmark and North America. But the solution may lie in something as special as mud in Greenland. This is the hypothesis of the geologist who has assembled a team of soil scientists, agronomists and biologists to investigate how the so-called glacial flour can be used to cultivate more sustainable agriculture in tropical countries. The film follows over the course of eight years the patient scientific process from the first test mud being collected with a soup spoon tied to a broomstick, to the lab’s petri dishes, Funen cabbage fields, maize cultivation in Ghana and even an Olafur Eliasson exhibition in Versailles.

Credits

  • Director, producer & photographer:

    Jakob Gottschau

  • Adidtional camera work:

    Inuk Silis Høegh, Joli Sleem, Samuel Edem Wunu, Kenneth Sorento, Anders Berthelsen, Christian Klindt Sølbeck, Anders Palm Olesen,

  • Film Editor:

    David Rosenquist

  • Developing Film Editing:

    Jens Pedersen, Daria Korsak

  • Sound design:

    Lars Rasmussen

  • Color Grading:

    Oskar Fanta

  • Research:

    Simone Gottschau

  • DR Editor:

    Erling Groth, Thomas Gade

  • Thanks to:

    Institut for Plant Science and Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre, Kade, University of Ghana, ESALQ, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

  • Produced with support by:

    Novo Nordisk Foundation, OpEn – Udenrigsministeriets Oplysnings- og Engagementspulje, Aase og Jørgen Münters Fund.