Human/Nature
In this day and age, it's hard for us to see how we can continue to live in harmony with the planet. But by taking a look at films that represent humans interacting with their landscapes, we’ll examine the possibilities of human and nature working together, rather than against each other.
In FIRE AT SEA, Gianfranco Rosi paints a portrait of the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa and the refugees who live there. GOLD, a German Western set in Canada in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, shows the beauty and danger of the untamed wilderness to a cast of travelling gold diggers.
The collection continues on by introducing humanity. HUMAN NATURE explores the biological breakthrough of CRISPR, and the issue of human intervention on a molecular, genetic level. A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE is a bleak, dark comedy about the absurdity of the human condition. STATION TO STATION is a collaborative piece made up of 62 one-minute films; an impressive demonstration of the humanity of art.
The relationship between human and nature is symbiotic. To humans, nature and land overlap with labour. LEVIATHAN is the meditation of the convergence of human and nature - of fishermen and their catch, working on their boat in the churning sea. DIGGER follows a Greek farmer whose livelihood is troubled by a mining company who threatens to take away his land.
Nature acts as a muse for us - a way in which to make art, and sometimes, even the medium in which we create it. TROUBLEMAKERS: THE STORY OF LAND ART unearths the history of the land art movement in the 1960's and 1970's. LEANING INTO THE WIND showcases the art of Andy Goldsworthy, whose creations explore his local environment and himself.
The urban landscape may exist as not at odds with nature, but as a part of it, OF TIME AND THE CITY is British director Terence Davies' love letter to his hometown of Liverpool, looking at its transformation over the years in a meditation of time and memory. In IN THE WAKE OF THE FLOOD, Margaret Atwood answers the biggest question of all: how must humanity respond to the consequences of an environmentally compromised planet?
From the way nature engulfs us in its vastness to how we fight to preserve nature from forces of destruction and how we use nature to create art, there are many hopeful ways that we can exist in harmony with our planet.
HUMAN/NATURE COLLECTION
About Films We Like
Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential, Carmine Street Guitars) Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent, and international films in Canada. Recent releases include Fire Music: The Story of Free Jazz, All the Streets are Silent, and Wife of a Spy.