Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of
PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Here in America, the divide between science and religion
can be quite vast at times.
That divide is front and center
in tonight's film "We Believe in Dinosaurs."
In a small town in Kentucky
halfway between Cincinnati and Lexington,
one man, Ken Ham, is going to painstaking efforts
to prove not only that Noah built an Ark
and brought two of every animal on board,
but that that list included dinosaurs.
How is he doing this?
By building a life size replica of Noah's Ark
to the exact specifications of the one in the bible:
510-foot-long, 85-foot-wide and almost seven stories high.
And if you're going to that extreme to support your beliefs,
why not have a theme park close by?
Ham's goal is to prove that the Bible
is not only historically accurate
but also scientifically accurate.
He is not without opposition
from scientists, freethinkers and pastors
who have issues with the what's called
the creation science behind the project,
as well as tax incentives provided by the state.
Co-directors Monica Long-Ross and Clayton Brown
tell the story through the eyes of three Kentucky natives:
an artist who creates lifelike animals for the ark,
a pro-science geologist who disapproves
of the project's discriminatory hiring practices,
and a young former creationist.
"We Believe in Dinosaurs" took Long-Ross and Brown
over four years to shoot.
They started when the project was nothing but blueprints
and followed it all the way through opening day.
The Hollywood Reporter says of the film,
'...it convincingly, and sometimes frighteningly,
explores the big business connections
to fundamentalist religion.'
"We Believe in Dinosaurs" starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.