Huh. The Mushroom Speaks is a strange little film. In an experimental style, it combines interviews with scientists about the importance of fungi to life on earth, and its potential in countering human damage to the environment, with more philosophical musings told silently in captions on screen supposedly from the perspective of a mushroom. It’s…
Jesus, that was rough. Delikado focuses on the work of indigenous land defenders in the Philippines, protecting their island against illegal logging. All the odds are stacked against them, and the film follows the huge sacrifices they make in trying to protect their land and people. Let’s just start here – everyone knows that the…
Hostile is a look at the hostile environment policies implemented by the UK government, and tracing both its origins and impact. The hostile environment policy follows the same tack that you find in a lot of government services with lists that target reduction – the dole, disability allowance, mental health care – in that the…
Foragers looks at the criminalisation of gathering Palestinian cooking herbs and vegetables on traditional Palestinian land by the Israeli state. The problem for those who seek power is that we actually live in a world with an overflowing abundance capable of meeting our needs. That is why separation from the land is such a vital…
Coming Home is a short film about the Freedom Dabka Group, a group of Palestinian-Americans in Brooklyn who use the traditional dance of dabka to connect with their heritage and keep it alive. The guys in this film grew up on the basketball courts of Brooklyn, but their parents still remember the Palestine they were…
You remember The Corporation? Documentary movie released back in 2003, it put forward that if corporate personhood was a thing, then the corporation would be diagnosed a psychopath. Big favourite in charity shop DVD sections near universities all throughout the 2000s. It made you start reading and then swiftly abandon the book No Logo, remember?…
On The Line follows 3 deportees from the United States to Mexico. All have spent decades and decades living in the US, and have nothing in Mexico. They live in Tijuana, close enough to the American border to see San Diego on a clear day. The heartbreak of this film is of how near, and…
The Ants and the Grasshopper focuses on two women, Anita and Esther. Anita is a Malawian farmer and a community activist. Esther is Anita’s friend, mentor and a nurse. Both are active in Bwabwa. They run a women’s local network, focusing on tackling gender inequality, improving children’s health, and ensuring food stability. Anita is one…
The Last Forest is a documentary showing the Yanomami people and their home, the forest of Brazil. It is co-written and stars Davi, a Yanomami leader and activist. It takes place almost entirely in the forest, showing the daily life of the people there. There are some staged scenes, where their origin story is acted…
Sky Aelans is a short film about the untouched forests of the Solomon Islands and the people who live there. It is beautifully shot and filled with evocative sound. It makes a plea to protect these unspoiled areas.