Smart trees

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Intelligent Trees is a German documentary by Julia Dordel and Guido Tölke from 2017 with the Canadian forest scientist Suzanne Simard and the German forester and author Peter Wohlleben . The 45-minute film examines the communication between trees, among other things through their extensive, subterranean root system. The film premiered on May 7, 2017 in the Kino im Künstlerhaus in Hanover. This was also the only German cinema screening. In France, under the name L'Intelligence des Arbres , distributed by Jupiter Film, the film was a box-office hit with over 140,000 viewers.

content

The focus of the film is always communication and the living together of the trees. He combines research results of the Canadian forest scientist Suzanne Simard from the University of British Columbia with the observations of the forester Peter Wohlleben. For example, it is about an old tree stump that has long since ceased to be viable by itself, but which is still being kept alive by its neighboring trees. Furthermore, so-called “mother trees”, the largest and oldest trees in the forest, which, according to the film, not only look after their own offspring, but also look after their entire neighborhood.

The film can be divided into four sub-chapters:

  • How does communication between trees work?
  • Can trees feel fear? How do trees react to pests, for example, and how do they pass this information on to their neighboring trees?
  • Do trees have a memory? Can trees benefit from the experiences of their ancestors?
  • How can people and the forest live better in harmony? What do people have to learn in dealing with the forest and what do they have to consider in the future in order to protect trees?

production

"Intelligent Trees" was filmed in Germany and Canada in 2015 and 2016 , including in Lighthouse Park in Vancouver and in the forest near Nelson, British Columbia, as well as in several German forests, including the quiet forest Hümmel in the Eifel, Forst Rundshorn in Wedemark and Europe's largest urban forest, the Eilenriede in Hanover. The production company was Dorcon Film in Hanover.

The film was made with a small budget and a very small team. Julia Dordel, who has a PhD in forestry, produced the film. The contact between protagonist and filmmaker came about through university research. From 2005 to 2009 Julia Dordel wrote her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Suzanne Simard on the topic "Effects of nurse tree species on growth environment and physiology of underplanted Toona ciliata Roem". Here, too, the focus was on communication between the tree species examined. Julia Dordel and Guido Tölke directed together, and together they also wrote the script. The camera was directed by Guido Tölke, who was also responsible for post-production.

The film is a continuation of the short film "Do trees Communicate", which was made in 2011 and was also produced by Julia Dordel with Suzanne Simard as the presenter. "Do trees communicate" was directed by the journalist Dan McKinney, who holds a professorship at the University of British Columbia and has already won an Emmy with his students for a film about electronic waste in Africa.

There is a German and an English version (“Intelligent Trees”); For the English version, Peter Wohlleben was overshadowed by the English voice actor Tom Tucker, for the German version all English interview passages were provided with a German voiceover . The German narrator voice comes from the actress Denise M'Baye . There is also the film with French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles. The film was funded by the nordmedia - Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen / Bremen .

Moderators

The two moderators of the film are the Canadian forest scientist Suzanne Simard and the German forester and author Peter Wohlleben, who in 2015 published a book entitled “The Secret Life of Trees”.

Suzanne Simard during filming
Interview with Suzanne Simard

Simard is a researcher at the Institute for Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Her specialty are so-called mother trees, the largest trees in a forest, which prefer to support their own but also foreign young trees by supplying them with nutrients via an underground network that they need to grow. Simard described the concept of communication between trees in her Nature article "Net transfer of carbon between tree species with shared ectomycorrhizal fungi".

Originally, “Intelligent Trees” was supposed to be a film exclusively about Suzanne Simard's research, but the filmmakers came across a TV report about Peter Wohlleben via the social network Facebook and discovered that he was propagating Suzanne Simard's research content in a vivid way for laypeople as well could make explainable.

Further interviewees of the film are:

  • Teresa Ryan (Indian name: Sm'hayetsk): Postdoc at the Forest and Conservation Sciences Institute of the University of British Columbia in Canada
  • Monika A. Gorzelak: PhD student at the Forest and Conservation Sciences Institute of the University of British Columbia in Canada
  • Amanda Asay: PhD student at the Forest and Conservation Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia in Canada
  • Julia Amerongen Maddison, Masters graduate and research associate at the Forest and Conservation Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia in Canada

Awards and film festivals

Since its appearance, "Intelligent Trees" has been shown at various international film festivals. He was the winner of the Life Science Film Festival Award 2017 in Prague. He also won the Atlanta Docufest 2017 in the category "Best Environmental Documentary Feature" in Atlanta, USA. In 2018 "Smart Trees" won the Soo Film Festival 2018 in Michigan, USA.

Furthermore, "Intelligent Trees" could be seen at the following festivals:

  • Greenmotion Film Festival 2017 in Freiburg, Germany
  • Innsbruck Nature Film Festival 2017 in Innsbruck, Austria
  • Green Fest Serbia 2017 in Belgrade, Serbia
  • The Lower East Side Film Festival 2017 in New York, USA
  • Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2017 Calgary, Canada
  • Friday Harbor Film Festival 2018 in Washington, USA

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Smart trees. The documentary film. On: intelligent-trees.com
  2. ↑ Do trees communicate? Trailer on youtube.com
  3. ↑ Suzanne W. Simard, David A. Perry, Melanie D. Jones, David D. Myrold, Daniel M. Durall and Randy Molina: Net transfer of carbon between tree species with shared ectomycorrhizal fungi. In: Nature . Volume 388, 1997, pp. 579-582, doi: 10.1038 / 41557
  4. ↑ LSFF 2017 Jury Protocol | Life sciences film festival. Retrieved October 22, 2018 (American English).
  5. ↑ Atlanta Docufest Awards. Retrieved October 22, 2018 .
  6. ↑ SFF 2018 Films: Block 7 - The Earth is Our Mother . In: Soo Film Festival: Sep 12-16, 2018 . ( soofilmfestival.org [accessed October 22, 2018]).