“It’s not our land that’s broken. It’s our relationship to land that’s broken,” says botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer in Understory. The documentary directed by Su Rynard, which was just announced for a world premiere at DOC NYC, shares the wealth of knowledge that we can learn about the world—and ourselves—from plants. POV has the first look at the trailer for Understory ahead of its debut at the festival.
This Canadian-Spanish co-production focuses on three key voices who study and explore the worlds of plants: forester Suzanne Simard, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, and philosopher Paco Calvo. The three green thinkers individually and collectively illuminate the complex life force rooted in the plants that drive the cycles of clean air and energy across the planet. Understory uses these perspectives to invite a paradigm shift as human practices run contrary to the lessons offered by the Earth’s plants.
“My hope is that viewers will leave the cinema with the ability to encounter the plants around them as if for the first time, ultimately learning to see ourselves as a part of nature: equal, connected and interdependent,” Rynard said in a statement. Rynard previously directed the hit bird doc The Messenger and dove into the world of plants in the short doc The Everlasting Pea.
Understory is produced by Rynard, Nadine Pequeneza, Marieke van den Bersselaar and Carles Brugueras. The film premieres at DOC NYC on November 13 and 14 with additional festival/release details to follow.
Watch the trailer for Understory below:
Synopsis: Three visionaries — forester Suzanne Simard, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, and philosopher Paco Calvo — have spent their careers listening and learning from plants. Each paid the price for being an outsider. Together, their work converges on a single, quietly radical idea: that the natural world is not a warehouse of resources for human consumption, but a community of intelligent, feeling, interconnected beings. Could this shift in perception be the key to leading us out of the ecological crisis we face?
The post Watch the Trailer for Understory Ahead of Its DOC NYC Debut appeared first on POV Magazine.