‘There are trees where to lay your eggs or where to find a safe cover; trees on which to look for food or, simply, to scratch your back and thus leave behind a trace of your passage’ – Bruno D’Amicis and Umberto Esposito
An inspired filmmaking experiment, One Tree, One Year observes a year in the life of a beech tree in Italy’s National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. Filmed continuously through the changing seasons, the short documentary glimpses several species – including wild boar, Italian wolves and Marsican brown bears – passing by and interacting with the tree in a variety of ways, unaware of the camera. The result is a simple yet enchanting rejoinder to sensationalised nature filmmaking, and a marvellous distillation of the incredible complexity of ecosystems.
Via Kottke
Directors: Bruno D’Amicis, Umberto Esposito
Website: Forestbeat
videoNature and landscape
Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons
7 minutes
videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
videoNature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoArchitecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
videoHome
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoNature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes