1843 – My Octopus Teacher (2020)

timespace coordinates: 2010, free-diving in a cold underwater kelp forest at a remote location in False Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa. The location was near Simon’s Town on the Cape Peninsula, which is exposed to the cold Benguela current of the Atlantic Ocean.

My Octopus Teacher is a 2020 Netflix Original documentary film directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, which documents a year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with a wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest. At the 93rd Academy Awards, it won the award for Best Documentary Feature. (wiki)

imdb   /   netflix

1830 – Around the World in 80 Gardens (Documentary | TV Series 2008)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Mexico, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, USA, China, Japan, Italy, Morocco, Spain, South Africa, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia

Around the World in 80 Gardens is a television series of 10 programmes in which British gardener and broadcaster Monty Don visits 80 of the world’s most celebrated gardens. A book based on the series was also published. (wiki)

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1828

“If only plants could speak. From extraordinary flowers to intricate leaf patterns, we admire their expressivity every day… without once wondering what they can teach us about self-expression. Take the plunge into the silent yet endlessly creative vegetal world, and discover a Nietzsche decidedly less conquering and nihilistic than what we’re used to.”

Disclaimer: This video essay is based on Nietzche’s published writings as well as non-canonical texts (ie his Unpublished Fragments).

Academic works that provided inspiration for this video were notably Vanessa Lemm’s article “What we can learn from Plants about the Creation of Values” and Gary Shapiro’s “Earth’s garden happiness: Nietzsche’s Geoaesthetics of the Anthropocene”, both published in the Nietzsche-Studien and freely accessible here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publicat…​ https://scholarship.richmond.edu/phil…​

Written and illustrated by Zoe Almon Job. Animated and edited by Theo Garcia.

via MR

1792 – Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (2015)

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (Spanish: Psiconautas, los niños olvidados; festival title: Psychonauts, the Forgotten Children) is a 2015 Spanish animated drama-horror coming-of-age film written and directed by Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, based on the comic Psiconautas by Vázquez. It is the follow-up to the pair’s short film Birdboy, following the titular character, a shy outcast in a post-apocalyptic society, and Dinky, a teenage mouse runaway fleeing her desolate island home. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes   /  albertovazquez.net/ 

1748 – WolfWalkers (2020)

timespace coordinates: Kilkenny, Ireland 1650

Wolfwalkers is a 2020 animated fantasy adventure film directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. The film is the third installment in Moore’s “Irish Folklore Trilogy”, following his previous films The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014). The film is an international co-production led by Cartoon Saloon and Mélusine Productions,

The Art of Wolfwalkers CR: Abram Books

released digitally on Apple TV+ on December 11 (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1741

Instead of neat rows of monoculture, forest gardens combine fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables together in one seemingly wild setting. This type of agroforestry mimics natural ecosystems and uses the space available in a sustainable way. UK-based Martin Crawford is one of the pioneers of forest gardening. Starting out with a flat field in 1994, his land has been transformed into a woodland and serves as an educational resource for others interested in forest gardening. This short film by Thomas Regnault focuses on Crawford’s forest garden, which is abundant, diverse, edible, and might be one answer to the future of food systems.

1647 – The Fountain (2006)

timespace coordinates: 16th century. conquistador Tomás Verde in New Spain, neuroscientist Tom Creo working on a cure in 2005, 26th century space traveler Tommy in a self-contained biosphere bubble. flying in outer space toward the golden nebula of Xibalba

The Fountain is a 2006 American epic romantic drama film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Blending elements of fantasy, history, spirituality and science fiction, the film consists of three storylines involving mortality and the resulting loves lost, and one man’s pursuit of avoiding this fate in this life or beyond it.

Production mainly took place on a sound stage in Montreal, Quebec, and the director used macro photography to create key visual effects for The Fountain at a low cost.

HUGH JACKMAN and RACHEL WEISZ star in Warner Bros. PicturesÕ and Regency EnterprisesÕ sci-fi fantasy ÒThe Fountain.Ó Photo: Intelligent Creatures Inc. PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, PUBLICITY OR REVIEWS OF THIS SPECIFIC MOTION PICTURE AND TO REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF THE STUDIO. NOT FOR SALE OR REDISTRIBUTION.

The design of the space traveler’s ship was inspired in part by Biosphere 2 near Tucson, Arizona.

Critics’ reactions to the film were divided, but it has gained a cult following since its release. In December 2008, Aronofsky expressed interest in reassembling The Fountain, not as a director’s cut, but as an alternate story that combined theatrical footage and unused footage. (wiki)

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