Our project is a feature length, character driven sci-fi documentary. A visionary film that educates humans to draw inspiration from the plant world. It follows scientists and experts whose work over the past 20 years has revealed plant agency. Using cutting edge technology to produce breathtaking images and sounds of plant activities, we want to make audiences aware of kinships that our species has long forgotten.
We all know humans utterly depend on the oxygen plants produce and plants form the basis of our diets. Yet most of us living in urban settings do not honor this interdependence. Our policies and lifestyles objectify and harm the plant world, using it as an unlimited resource. Contemporary thinkers suggest this is because humans are "plant blind", a state that has been encouraged by Western metaphysics, forming a worldview centered on human needs, bringing modern societies to the verge of environmental catastrophes.
Over 400 million years, plants have co-evolved with other organisms, developing numerous interdependencies and adaptation skills. Dr Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist based in Australia, has shown that, without brains, plant individuals “memorize” experiences to make choices favorable to their development. According to recent findings, plants perceive and react to over 20 types of stimuli. Can we communicate with plants? And what happens when we listen to them? Our project addresses the very question of what is intelligence beyond the “brain-centered” approach.
Partnering with labs, scientists and thinkers, we will shoot reenactments of breakthrough experiments - inside and outside the lab, exploring biomes - to relate indigenous plant knowledge and Western research.
Beyond the film, an impact campaign will be designed in collaboration with DocSociety. This project seeks to change the perception of mainstream audiences towards the plant world and hopefully inspire greater humility in humans.
