Is it a science doc? Is it a travel essay? Is it a political film? No, it is Super Nature, a global love letter to nature! And it may remind you a bit of your old family home movies – if you’re old enough, that is.
Visual and auditory beauty rather than stats and data are in focus in the film from director Ed Sayers in his feature debut. The Super 8 images (Super Nature – get it!?) that they collected from around the world flutter across the screen to remind us of the marvels of nature and wildlife and why they deserve protection.
“How do you make a film about the natural world that’s environmentally sound?” reads a synopsis on the website of the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) where the movie world premiered on Sunday. “The solution is a community film spanning continents. Sending cameras to his contributors, Sayers edited together a mosaic of intimate observations of natural landscapes, creating a lush and deeply personal paean to nature, and a truly engrossing cinematic experience.”
Sayers’ background is in directing and producing commercials and music videos. His first short film, Goldfish, featured Michael Fassbender.
A Seven Productions and Grasp the Nettle Films production, the movie was co-produced by Forest of Black. It was financed by the BFI Doc Society Fund (awarding National Lottery funding), Screen Scotland, Cinelab Film and Digital, Foghorn Features, and Autlook Filmsales, which is handling international sales.
The producers are Rebecca Wolff, who runs Grasp the Nettle Films, Sayers, and Beth Allan, plus executive producer Asif Kapadia.
BFI Distribution just picked up Super Nature for theatrical release in the U.K. and Ireland.
Sayers and producer Wolff talked to THR‘s Georg Szalai about building a community around film and nature and focusing on hope rather than fear.
Super Nature is less about scary facts and figures and more about making people feel something. Tell me a bit about that approach you chose and your deal with BFI Distribution!
Wolff BFI Distribution is an amazing partner. They’re going to open the film at the BFI South Bank and then open it as widely as possible around the U.K. and Ireland. It’s such a beautiful film to see on the big screen. So we’re really pleased. They’re really passionate about bringing films to the big screen.
Sayers They are the perfect fit, and they’re keen to go to the multiplexes. They feel that the film has obvious slices of audiences – they are the film lovers, the celluloid lovers, and the nature lovers. They genuinely have a desire, like we do, to get this film to the widest audience and get it talked about over the breakfast table.
Our hope is, and I say this humbly, that it will just remind people of that ever more tenuous connection we have with nature. And if anyone goes away from seeing our film just feeling they just want to do a little bit more to nurture that all-important relationship – like all relationships, it needs to be looked after – we might start moving to a better place. We just want to do our little bit for the conversation. Especially because our conversation today is so divided on every matter.
How has the reception been in the LFF cinemas?
Wolff We had the world premiere, and the atmosphere in the room afterwards was really peaceful, with a lot of love for the film and what it was saying. People were just feeling very emotional in a really positive way, even though some cried.
Sayers It’s doing something that we wouldn’t have dared to hope. And I’m feeling, reading through all the messages, that it’s touching people in a way beyond their conscious feelings. And that’s what we want. I really feel that this is about connection.
How did you think about the balance between focusing on facts, warnings, or encouragement? Despite some of the scary trends affecting nature, the film isn’t a dire warning, but more of an appreciation…
Wolff Ed had the inspiration for this film, and we really wanted to do a thing that was talking about what we’re fighting for rather than what we’re fighting against. And that was really early in our hearts to bring to it a sense of celebration.
Sayers Yeah, it was about finding connection. And we really wanted to celebrate people where they were and their connection to nature. So it was about the people and about their connection to nature all over the world.
You were really ambitious to make it feel like a truly global tapestry. I read there were 40 Super 8 collaborators, both professional filmmakers and local enthusiasts, in 25 countries across five continents.
Sayers It’s an incredibly international film, and it was really important to us that it was a positive film that brought you active hope, that made you feel that you can make a change, and that didn’t make it overwhelming and big.
Jane Goodall, who just died, talked very much about what we can all do, and how every moment of every day we’re making an impact on the world, and we can choose whether it’s positive or negative. And that was so important to us.
