Digging into our deep-rooted love affair with lawns.
Synopsis
America built a religion around the lawn. For centuries it has symbolized success, shaping the American dream one neatly trimmed blade at a time. But as climate pressures mount, something is shifting beneath the surface. The film charts the lawn from its origins as a European status symbol through its postwar explosion across suburban America and into the present moment, where a $60 billion industry and a growing counter-movement are engaged in a genuine turf war.
With humor as its fertilizer, One Nation Under Sod follows two groups caught in the middle of that war: the loyalists, who tend their lawns with an almost spiritual devotion, and the heretics, a growing movement ripping their grass out and replacing it with something wilder. Woven through their stories are scientists and ecologists who put it all in context, because it turns out what's happening in our front yards is connected to something much larger.
This film doesn't take sides. It grabs a shovel and digs into the question we somehow never think to ask: what do our yards say about us?
Meet the
Characters
The Lawnfluencer
PJ has built a devoted social media following around her love of turf. As a queer, Black woman redefining who lawn culture is for, she’s not just growing grass. She’s growing community. Check out her channel: GirlzLawn.
The HOA Rebel
Melinda is fighting her HOA for the right to grow something other than turf. She measures her lawn to stay just inside the rules and keeps the location of her pollinator garden strictly confidential.
Jessie — The Ripper Upper
Jessie is a self-proclaimed anti-capitalist with a punk-rock ethic. As founder of Undoing Ruin, he’s on a mission to challenge the turf industry and replace grass with native habitat.
The In-Lawns
Chris inherited his love of grass from his “father-in-lawn,” Melvin–a man with zero tolerance for weeds. Together, they fertilize around the kids’ naptimes, chasing the dream of a backyard putting green.
The Lawn Ranger
Tom is expanding his 20,000-square-foot lawn for one simple reason: more grass to mow. His riding mower is his therapy. But as moles invade his striped masterpiece, that control is starting to slip.
The Pollinator Whisperer
Nathalie has transformed her yard into a thriving mosaic of native and edible plants. But even as she plants more, she’s finding fewer and fewer pollinators visiting her garden.
