Ecologies of Mind

“I hate nature!”, a common phrase uttered by today’s teenagers that raises the question: are we capable of evolving as a species fast enough to save this planet? The aim of our annual environmental series is to bust through preconceptions of ruin and passivity and to share with audiences some of the most scintillating and galvanizing art being made these days.

The 4th Revolution – Energy Autonomy (Die 4. Revolution – Energy Autonomy)
Germany/USA, Dir: Carl-A Fechner

Possibly the most inspirational, solutions-based environmental film out there, Carl-A Fechner’s impressively mounted documentary travels the world to examine best practices – in Denmark, Germany, Brazil, Bangladesh and Mali – that put much of the rest of the world to shame. Very slick. Very encouraging.

Back to the Garden, Flower Power Comes Full Circle
USA, Dir: Kevin Tomlinson

In Washington State’s Okanogan in 1988, Kevin Tomlinson filmed a group of “hippies” who had been living off the land since the 60s. Now in this poignant examination of this community over time, he tracks down those original interviewees and shows what the glories and sufferings of living off the grid might really entail.

An Ecology of Mind
Canada/USA, Dir: Nora Bateson

Nora Bateson celebrates her anthropologist-father Gregory Bateson, whose work in cybernetics, semiotics and epistemology continues to challenge us to see our lives within a larger system. With A Simple Rhythm (Canada, 56 min.), Tess Girard’s absorbing look at (and listen to) synchrony and chaos, and the universal vibrations that connect us all.

The Eye 3D – Life and Science on Cerro Paranal (Das Auge – Leben und Forschen auf dem Cerro Paranal)
Germany, Dir: Nikolai Vialkowistch

Finally, a 3D science documentary! The European Union’s VLT Observatory, set in the extraordinary granular landscape of the high Atacama Desert of northern Chile, is the world’s most powerful. The film’s 3D technique, harnessed to something genuinely extraordinary, makes Nikolai Vialkowistch’s multiple award-winner a remarkable experience

Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie
Canada, Dir: Sturla Gunnarsson

Ecologist and scientist David Suzuki serves as veteran filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson’s subject in this thorough, deep-reaching account of the Canadian icon’s life. Gunnarsson shows how Suzuki’s relationship with his father and the family’s internment during WWII gave Suzuki a sense that history matters and helped shape his critical thinking as an “outsider.” Also see: Severn, The Voice of Our Children, about the important work done by Suzuki’s daughter.

Into Eternity
Denmark, Dir: Michael Madsen

Finland’s Onkalo facility for nuclear waste is expected to take more than 100 years to build and to last for 100,000, with the hope that earth’s future inhabitants (whatever they may be) will never discover it. Michael Madsen’s chin-dropping documentary poses profound questions not only about the nuclear industry, but also about the very nature of human history. Kraftwerk fans take note!

Plug & Pray
Germany, Dir: Jens Schanze

The deeply fascinating and occasionally frightening future of artificial intelligence research is the focus of Jens Schanze’s globe-trotting report on the state of things in the field. Among others, futurist Ray Kurzweil, proponent of the concept of “singularity,” and computer pioneer Joseph Weizenbaum consider whether man really can go beyond biology…

Robinson in Ruins
UK, Dir: Patrick Keiller

A droll historical essay on where we’ve come from and where we may be all-too-unwittingly going, set to Vanessa Redgrave’s narration of director Patrick Keiller’s text, juicy quotations, and much refreshingly un-hackneyed landscape cinematography of England. It is also a survey of “strategic assets,” including the present-tense vibrations of nature.

Severn, The Voice of Our Children
France, Dir: Jean-Paul Jaud

A remarkable documentary dealing with the environmental problems facing our planet, Jean-Paul Jaud’s ravishingly visual work uses 12-year-old Severn Suzuki’s (daughter of David, who is the subject of Force of Nature, also at VIFF) 1992 address to the Earth Summit in Rio as the jumping off point for a globe-trotting examination of how individuals are combatting threats to our world.

Think Global, Act Rural
France, Dir: Coline Serreau

Want to know how to really save the planet? Coline Serreau’s “radical and exhilarating” (Le Nouvelle Observateur)
documentary-cum-manifesto offers a good beginning. Serreau returns to her roots, quite literally, to dig deeply into the highly politicized world of organic agriculture, with help from some very knowledgeable and witty international experts.

Vapor Trail (Clark)
USA, Dir: John Gianvito

John Gianvito’s unforgettable, epic work is part one of an investigation into the ecological disaster caused by a US military base in the Philippines – its victims and their world. A humble act of solidarity, a defiant work of remembrance, a rallying cry to rise and resist, and a cinematic prose poem.

Windfall
USA, Dir: Laura Israel

Are energy-generating wind turbines really one of the best ways to wean ourselves from the need for fossil fuels? Laura Israel looks at the down-on-its-luck town of Meredith, NY, and the problems and controversies that came to light when a wind-energy company came in search of land for their towers. Sometimes “green” does not equal “good”…