Projects in genres: Science

Synopsis

The degradation of the environment is the main problem facing all of us. If that isn't enough, many people oppose action to save the environment or deny there is even a problem. Some of the most vocal and powerful of these people are conservative Christians in the USA. Tri Robinson, a conservative evangelical pastor but also life-long environmentalist, has battled throughout his life to show that Christianity and environmentalism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, environmental stewardship is demanded by Christianity – “with dominion comes responsibility”. Most environmental films are framed for a liberal audience and preach to the converted. This film addresses “unconverted” Christians, while offering liberal non-Christians a fascinating insight into evangelical values and mindset as Tri, at work on his ranch or church, builds up a Biblical case for environmentalism emphasising respect and responsibility that flies in the face of many on either side. This film is absolutely timely – the destruction of the environment is the most important issue facing all people, and many politicians and voters need to face it.

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Colours blue and orange dominate. Dolphins navigate desert regions through rapid scene alternation

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Agile cross-cutting between images shows animals hunting in the snow. The soundtrack is a Roma song celebrating the coming of spring. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

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Tracing the movements of the New Silk Road, this essay-documentary follows distribution networks which are expanding across vast regions between China and Europe. Mapped through footage, interviews, field recordings and found WeChat videos; government efforts to speed up the movement of trade collide with more-than-human choreographies of sand, people and goods. 'Paralogisticians' hack infrastructural space through transnational guanxi and long distance friendships. Desert sands made restless by Westerly winds disrupt roads, railways and sometimes engulf whole cities. Through a disorientation of the senses – bodies and landscapes become mobile. Official Selection Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

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Coming-of-age-story about the experiences of wearing glasses. From the first pair, eye drops, the tests and the pressures from others, we follow the journey of a young girl as she grows up into a confident woman who embraces the rims of glass that help her make sense of the world.

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The story of an unlikely friendship forged in isolation. After a particularly harsh winter Brian goes into a deep depression; completely isolated and with no one to talk to, Brian does what any sane person would do when faced with such a melancholic situation, he builds a robot. Charles is that robot. While life is pretty rosy for a while, tensions begin to rise between the pair. Partly due to the fact that Charles has the cognitive ability of a 4-year-old child and completely due to the fact that he keeps eating Brian's cabbages. Things soon come to a head and Brian is forced to make a decision he may soon come to regret. Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2018 - Narrative Shorts Competition - World premiere

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An elegy for the NASA/ESA spacecraft Cassini. Using light and dark, movement and stillness, the film combines digital video with manipulated archival images and 3D models to explore the relationship between man, machine and the natural environment.

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A documentary portrait of Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research (Braziers), the longest-running secular resident community in the UK. Centred upon insights from current residents and members, the film interweaves scenes of daily life with the natural features, architectural characteristics and diverse cultural history of the community. Set in the wider context of sustainable living and the economics of post-capitalism, Intentional Community explores the 'sociobiological' ideas of Braziers' founders, who established the community in 1950 as a social experiment in group co-existence. Today, Braziers continues to explore and live-out ideas of co-existence, collective work and our place in nature. Edited with a layered, non-linear approach, the composite film makes correspondences between the past and present, combing interior and exterior spaces of the gothic manor house with material from Braziers’ archive of photographs, audio recordings and film. Archival footage includes scenes from a 1964 Situationist gathering, attended by writers Alexander Trocchi, Jeff Nuttall, artist John Latham and psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Intentional Community also explores Braziers’ links to the Common Wealth political party, the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, Kibbo Kift, and Grith Fyrd peace camps, reflecting Braziers’ deep-rooted, progressive social values, educational ideas, ecological awareness and connections to the counterculture.

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Urges in the undergrowth, erupting fungal fantasies, bursting botanicals; the dust and desires of a tiny alternative universe. Imagining sensations of attraction and pleasure in insects, and the seduction methods of the plants and fungi that beckon.

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A book and audio experience that uses a mixture of evocative music, narration and field recording to bring stories of changing environments, from the swamplands of Louisiana, to empty Latvian villages and the edge of the Tunisian Sahara.

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Combining cutting edge virtual reality filmmaking and multisensory storytelling, immerse yourself in the lives and struggle of the Munduruku Indigenous People deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

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An unseen location scout explores an opal mining town in South Australia in this sci-fi-laced essay film, which finds in this semi-deserted region both the traces of indigenous culture and remnants of cinema history.