Tropism is the tendency of an organism to orient towards an external stimulus. Phototropism is most familiar: the natural movement and growth of plants towards light. As, for the northern hemisphere, the weather warms and the sun's energy strengthens for summer, we may have a lot in common with our vegetable neighbors, a shared yearning to be out in the sun. Pandemic-allowing, we hope to soon be able to bask freely in its glow once again. Until then, here are a selection of films celebrating solar rays and surging plant growth
Sunstone tracks Fresnel lenses from their site of production to their exhibition in a museum of lighthouses and navigational devices. It also examines the diverse social contexts in which optics are implicated, contrasting the system of triangular trade that followed the first European arrivals in t
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan, a former Soviet Socialist Republic, plunged into a devastating civil war. A famine struck the mountainous region of the Pamir where Raïmberdi, a passionate and ingenious botanist, built his own hydroelectric station to help his family survive thro
A panning shot follows a wallpainting. This ttrompe l'oeil' painting actually represents the landscape beyond the wall. Slowly it turns to life the concrete begins to tremble as if the plants were growing inside it. This part of the wall has been recently built in Jerusalem. The viewer does not know
Ever wonder what the world might look like beyond the visible light spectrum? Cameras can capture UV and infrared light beyond the ability of the human eye, revealing the secrets of the cosmos and our own macro universe. With amazing visuals and illuminating science "Out of Sight" explores the bound
This animated short follows a group of happy vacationers sunbathing... under cloudy skies. Despite the weather, they look cheerful, eating ice cream and hot dogs, frolicking in the sand. When the sun finally breaks through the clouds, everyone deserts the beach. The film presents a fanciful yet awkw
The story tells of Mei, a 30-year-old woman from Tokyo, who sends a message to her friend Toshi in Hamburg, telling him about haiku, strange recollections from her youth, and the last muggy summer night. Still shocked by the death of the journalist Iwaji Masaki she falls into a dream-like hallucinat
Time-lapses of cacti and succulent over the course of a year. Environmental data drives the tone and filtration of the sounds while the rising and setting of the sun illuminates the growth of plants moving in and out phase with one another.
Solar Walk shows the journey of individuals and their creations on through time and space. Any meaning of action is only existent from the perspective of the individual, but never mandatory when looking at it from the perspective of a solar system. It's about the melancholy of accepting chaos as bea
« Plant some trees and go from there » presents forest-gardening through the work of Martin Crawford, and makes the case for resilient food production systems based on trees and other perennial plants.
My Moon is an eight minute 2D animated short film, about the relationship between three celestial bodies, the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. The story revolves around the sad nature of the way they have to co-exist, as the Earth needs both emotional and practical values from both the Sun and Moon. Pr
In his work Exterminator Seed, oil spill contaminates the Brazilian coast. Capivara, an oil rig worker is evacuated back to Rio de Janeiro, where the locals remain ignorant of the incoming disaster. Despite de danger, Capivara wishes only to return to the offshore oil rigs. In the city he is aided b
Part science and part fiction, Other Voices is an experimental documentary about the enigmatic life of plants and the people who love them. We meet Mileece, a sound artist who claims to have given her plants a "voice" through a process of amplifying the electrical current produced in plant leaves an
This personal short film uses a series of telephone conversations with the filmmaker's mother as she tries to reconcile facing cancer for a fourth time. Low-fi video filmed at night captures her mothers bond to her home, shaping the tension and isolation of living life with a terminal illness. Noctu
Somewhere in the Universe, on the PLANET Z, a miracle happens. A water jet springs up and gives birth to a new life: plants. A desert planet becomes a green planet. Different species cohabit, including liquid and sticky mushrooms. But little by little, the mushrooms invade the green land and destroy
An office located in the Californian desert. The self-imposed objective is no less far out: narrative landscaping. Eden´s Edge is a nine-part episodic film from the Office for Narrative Landscape Design initially marked by exceptional directorial sobriety. The visual settings for the life-stor
Initially conceived as a project to explore the cryptocurrency gold rush in the rural region of Kakheti in Georgia, this strictly observational essay proved to be equally as much an exploration of the relationship between nature, technology, and the changing landscape.
Happy Tree is a short film made for the 7th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival (themed around TIME) 48 Hour Competition and won first prize. The film features Mari in the lead role as Dr. Eleanor Drew and was directed by Jonathan Minard. The script was based on a scientific paper by neuroscientist
At the centre are takes which do not change – a tree in a field in Vermont, U.S.A. Since the film was shot over a period of fifty days, the single frame shots create a storm of picturesHans Scheugl. "Tree again became one of Kren´s most beautiful works - although it is difficult to singl
Spring is a time-lapse film shot in New York over the course of 3 years. For more info, contact : INVISIBLEJAM@gmail.com
Urges in the undergrowth, erupting fungal fantasies, bursting botanicals; the dust and desires of a tiny alternative universe. A mixed media, experimental animation imagining attraction and pleasure in insects, and the seduction methods of the plants and fungi that beckon.
Exchange is a visual and informative illustration of air as the common bond between photosynthetic and respiratory organisms. The exchange of gases in the air -- carbon dioxide for oxygen, and oxygen for carbon dioxide -- between plants and animals is the most fundamental symbiosis on the planet.
The story of contemporary agriculture and a need for change, as told by a bee and its box.
Spinning drawings guide us along the flow of energy through our planet, and let us ponder our place in the natural cycle.
Two people break into the floral park of Vincennes at night, to force a field of dandelions to open by action of light in a few minutes.
"The Sulfur Butterflies" by Robert Silberglied and Chip Taylor, 1971. 16mm film. Music by Kristina Dutton & Lisa Schonberg. Original footage held at the Smithsonian Institution Archives Digitization sponsored by Dr. Arnaud Martin (The George Washington University, Washington DC) Rearing Anartia and
To Taste the Ground is a lyrical documentary that viscerally moves through the seasonal life cycle of a small organic farm in British Columbia, Canada. The remote farm exists off grid in the Fraser Canyon with solar power and water that flows from the surrounding mountains. The relationship between
In Indonesia, multinational corporations have drained millions of acres of swamps and converted them to industrial plantations of oil palm and acacia. Researchers are looking for alternative crops that can be grown in wet conditions, without draining. They're touting, among other possible candidates
A walk in the woods become a metaphoric journey in Chloé Leriche's short film. As a solitary figure moves through the forest, the texture of stone, the movement of water, all the infinite pageantry of the natural world is captured in its richness and detail. With the help of an orchestrated s
This short fiction has much to say about kindness, although without any dialogue. In a combination of live action and animation, we are introduced to a man who discovers a small plant hidden under the snow and takes it inside his house. The plant responds to his loving care with rather startling ent
The first film of PiKA PiKA, which started off as an experimentation of mid-air animation doodling using flashlights.