Kudzu, or Pueraria Thunbergiana, is a vine threatening to take over large portions of the Southern landscape. Imported from Japan by the Departement of Agriculture in the 30's for erosion control, its spreading growth has become a problem of menacing proportions. Kudzu is an off-beat, witty, informative documentary about the vine that is devouring the South. Featuring the Kudzu Queen, the Kudzu rock band, a cast of real-life characters and an appearance by former President Jimmy Carter, it illustrates how Southern cultural traditions have quickly grown up around a botanical pest. The eminent American poet and novelist James Dickey ("Deliverance"), recites three stanzas of his poem, "Kudzu."
"There are things in this world that are yet to be named" centers around Solanum plastisexum - an Australian tomato whose sexual expression is unpredictable and unstable, challenging even the fluid norms of the plant kingdom. Footage of the team of botanists who recently used their Solanum research to explode notions of sexual normativity in any plant or animal is combined with a voiceover of letters sent between science writer Rachel Carson and her lover Dorothy Freeman. "There are things in this world that are yet to be named" is a meditation on erasure, indefinability, and the intersection of queer and environmental histories.
Hand processed expired Kodak 7291, Camera: Beaulieu R16, Lens: Angenieux 12-120mm with +3 Diopter, Polarising filter for the clouds. Hand processed in C-41 chem using a Lomo UPB-1A tank. Still haven't mastered removal of the rem-jet anti-halation layer (thats all the white 'static' on the film). The film expired about 40 years ago.
This experimental film follows the work of two scientists who test a new device that uses specialized circuitry to transfer data between computer networks and living plants. Neither science nor fiction, this documentary highlights the human labor of scientific procedures, attentive to the future they are producing – in which humans will disappear.
14-part special in which botanist Francis Hallé explains forest science and processes. Part of the "Once Upon a Forest" physical release.
The undertaking of an enthusiastic group of scientists to transform an indoor cycle racing-track built for the 1968 Montréal Olympics into an ecological park. The Biodôme of Montréal contains 4 ecosystems of the 3 Americas, from the Tropical Forrest to the Polar World, from the Laurentian Forrest to the St-Lawrence Marine Environment.
Bad Boy of Bonsai is an experimental art-house documentary that focuses on Guy Guidry, a Louisiana local, and his passion for bonsai.
In addition to asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction based on seed development is common in the world of plants. The possibility of selectively crossing male and female plants to obtain seeds with desired characteristics is of great importance for the breeding of new plant varieties. The short film shows the dispersal of seeds - alone or together with fruits or fruit parts
Neurobiology has shown in the recent years that contrary to the traditional boundaries between animal and plants, plants can feel, move and even think. Over the recent years, a small but growing group of researchers from Austria, Germany, Italy, UK, Japan, South Africa and the USA, has developed a new scientific field of research: the neurobiology of plants. Their discoveries question the traditional boundaries set between the animal and the vegetable kingdom: plants are capable to develop the cognitive process claimed by humans and animals. If plants can move, and feel... Could they possibly think ? In a creative and captivating scientific investigation style, through spectacular specialist photography and CGI, and re-creating scientific experiments, this documentary is bound to change your own perception of plants.
The secret world of plants gets us closer to these motionless and quiet creatures, so attractive and surprising as the rest of the living creatures. The documentary reveals the most unknown aspects of the vegetable kingdom. We learn about the secret of the eternal youth of a 3500 years old sequoia and be charmed by the 'rafflesia arnoldi' flowers, able to reach up to one meter of diameter.
Film follows Haide and Toomas, husband and wife in life and in art Piip and Tuut through the hard work of the creation of their new clown show in the Botanical Garden of Tallinn, showing the intensity and poetry behind their craft and focusing on their collaboration on stage and in life.
We went to the fields to find out what they had to say.
Wild Flowers Plants of Palestine follows journeys of observational tours solicited by the Palestinian Museum and conducted by two professors from Birzeit University to collect photos of and information on the Palestinian Flora. The title is adapted from a collection of 123 images (circa 1900 to 1920) of wild flowers in Palestine found in the Matson Collection in the Library of Congress. Despite the tendency to trace the wild plants, the text in general aims at questioning the territorial extension of what is meant by the term “Palestinian”, while standing on insignificant topographical features of the (postcolonial) landscape in West Bank. Furthermore, it addresses photography as a practice and a tool of distributing and restricting information at once.
Plant movements in historical films by Wilhelm Pfeffers: geotropic bending of a horizontal Impatiens glandulifera; germination of Vicia faba; development and flowering in tulip, leaf movement in Mimosa speggazzinii and Desmodium gyrans.
Three filmmakers bring back images of the forest. They are reworked and destructured with the means of the photochemical laboratory. BOSCO is a visual breakthrough punctuated by a contrasted and hypnotic black and white.
A man starts to mix up his past life and recent life culminating in different colors disturbing his psyche in this continuation of Scope.
Eden
What would you do if your husband turned your house into a jungle? This is a short film focusing around mental entrapment in an emotionally abusive relationship, using plants as a metaphor.
In 1974, Morikazu is 94 years old and his wife Hideko is 76 years old. They live at a house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The garden at their home is full of trees, plants and insects. Morikazu paints pictures of the creatures in his garden and also observes them. This has been his daily routine for more than 30 years. Morikazu and Hideko entertain visitors every day including a photographer and the couple living next door.
Inside a room full of plants, a woman finds shelter from the outside world. Submerged in delirium, Alba experiences her withering.