IRRI Nostalgia Theatre

Throughout IRRI's 9-day open house, 19-26 April 2010, The IRRI Nostalgia Theatre will have regularly scheduled showings -- on the "big screen" in the Robert Havener Auditorium -- of a variety of contemporary and historic films and videos about IRRI and its staff members. Audiences will:

  • Screen the World Premiere of IRRI's new video for visitors, Rice Science for a Better World.

  • View the earliest film ever produced about IRRI (1963), This is IRRI.

  • See why Robert Chandler, Jr., won the World Food Prize in 1988.

  • Learn why World Food Prize Laureate Hank Beachell hesitated to actually eat IR8, the miracle rice that he helped create.

  • Be entertained by singer John Denver during the 1996 World Food Prize Program that recognized both Dr. Beachell and IRRI Breeder Gurdev Khush. The program also features cameos by Robert Chandler, Robert Havener, and Norman Borlaug.

  • Find out what U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, during his visit to IRRI in 1966, said to IRRI's first rice breeder Peter Jennings.

  • Recount IRRI's pivotal role in returning indigenous rice varieties to Cambodia after "The Killing Fields" in the PBS production of the Seeds of Hope.

  • Listen to what some 30 IRRI pioneers think are the Institute's  greatest challenges in 2010 and beyond.

  • Find out the kind of "trouble" that economists cause in an entertaining dialogue between retired IRRI economists Randy Barker and Robert Herdt.

View some "teaser" previews below.
 


This Is IRRI

 This film about IRRI in the early days was produced
by William C. Cobb in 1963 (11:22).

 
 


 1988 World Food Prize

This program was produced for the occasion of the World Food
Prize being being awarded to Dr. Robert F. Chandler,
IRRI's first director general..


 

1996 World Food Prize Program

Singer John Denver entertains the laureates and
audience in Des Moines on 18 October 1996.

 

 


Precious Seeds

This program, produced in 2000 by 
 AgCom International, recounts the achievements
of 1996 World Food Prize Laureate Hank Beachell and
his colleagues at IRRI. Funding from the USDA-National
Agricultural Library (NAL) supported this video project.



 


Origins of IRRI

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and Robert 
Chandler (IRRI's first director general) discuss the origins
of IRRI in a 1994 conversation. Below is an opening scene
of the conversation, courtesy of The Idea Channel.



 


Luck Is the Residue of Design
(Part 1)

Peter Jennings, IRRI's first rice breeder (1961-67),
played a major role in the development of IR8, the variety that
started the Green Revolution in rice. He reminisces his
epiphany in a very engaging interview from his home in Florida.


 

 

Clips from 1991 PBS-IRRI
production of the Seeds of Hope
Glenn Denning, former coordinator of the Cambodia-IRRI-
Australia Project (CIAP) and former director for IRRI's External
Operations, talks about rice in Cambodia.

 

Harry Nesbitt, IRRI agronomist for the Cambodia-IRRI-
Australia Project, talks about bringing rice seeds
back to Cambodia.

 

T.T. Chang, IRRI's principal geneticist (1961-91), talks
about the value of rice's diversity.

.

 

 

Some comments on IRRI's
challenges in 2010 and beyond
Ronnie Coffman, IRRI plant breeder, 1971-81; currently chair,
Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics,
and director of International Programs, Cornell University

 

Susan McCouch, IRRI associate geneticist, 1990-94; currently
Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University

 

The trouble with you economists!

Randy Barker, IRRI agricultural economist and head,
Economics Department, 1966-78; acting head, IRRI Social
Sciences Division, 2007-08, and
Robert Herdt, IRRI economist, 1973-83, head of
Economics Department, 1978-83; later director, agricultural
sciences, and vice president, The Rockefeller Foundation

 

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