Every Tuesday evening in September, the theme-savvy programmers at Webster University Film Series will be screening movies about the use and control of natural resources. The series includes two documentaries of particular interest to heartlanders: “King Korn” (Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m.), in which two young Bostonians farm an acre in Iowa to learn what’s made from maize; and “Food, Inc.” (Sept. 29 at 7:30 p.m.), the recent hit about corporate farming. (Monsanto is not too happy about the accusation that the company has a virtually extortionate monopoly on seeds.)

The other films are the thriller “A Civil Action” (Sept. 8), the water-rights documentary “Blue Gold” (Sept. 15) and the French favorite “Manon of Spring” (Sept. 22).

Here the complete descriptions:

King Korn
Tuesday, September 1 at 7:30 pm
(Aaron Wolf, 2007, USA, 88 min.)

A feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Korn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises many questions.

A Civil Action
Tuesday, September 8 at 7:30 pm
(Steven Zaillian, 1998, USA, 115 min.)

Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta) is a cynical, high-priced personal injury attorney who only takes big-money cases he can safely settle out of court. Though his latest case at first appears straightforward, Schlichtmann soon becomes entangled in an epic legal battle—one where he’s willing to put his career, reputation, and all that he owns on the line for the rights of his clients. Also featuring Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, and John Lithgow—this gripping, widely acclaimed film delivers edge-of-your-seat entertainment.

Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Tuesday, September 15 at 7:30 pm
(Sam Bozzo, 2008, USA, 90 min.)

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows.The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth. Blue Gold follows numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools.

Manon Of Spring (Manon des sources)
Tuesday, September 22 at 7:30 pm
(Claude Berri, 1986, France, 113 min.)

In a rural French village an old man and his only remaining relative are successful flower growers using water from a spring on an adjoining property they now own. The grown-up daughter of the previous owner still lives in the hills as a goatherd and comes to realize that not only these two but the whole village knew of the existence of the spring when her father was desperately trying to water his crops. An accident with one of the goats leads her by chance to the source of the spring and the possibility of a terrible revenge. (In French with English subtitles.)

Food, Inc
Tuesday, September 29 at 7:30 pm
(Robert Kenner, 2009, USA, 94 min.)

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

(if you haven’t seen “Food, Inc.,” it’s a must. Below is the very stylish opening.)