Fools’ Paradise (lost?)
Immersed in the experiences recounted by writers, filmmakers, artists, adventurers, environmentalists, scientists, and political activists, we wander into scientific inquiry around topics such as forest bathing, earthing, sustainable business and life practices, nature therapies and how we use the wild to regenerate ourselves and what is left of the wild.
As part of this film journey we will interweave, thematically inspired literary/poetic moments by writers and poets such as Mary Oliver, William Wordsworth, Edward Abbey and other literary/poetic greats as demonstrated in Writer/Director Alexandra Lexton’s award winning documentary THE LURE OF THIS LAND. Utilizing film as the conduit and the written word to clarify and deepen the story and viewer experience, it is our hope that we can broaden the thinking around what our natural world needs now and how we can deepen our life experience through connection to the land.
We have traveled in North America and Africa to find interview subjects and unearth topics that will add to the thesis of the project. For John Francis Planetwalker, we follow his environmentalist journey from its inception in the early 1970's to now, as he walks with other environmentalist to observe, inspire others, and preserve the land. As with Jody MacDonald, renowned adventure/nature photographer, she uses her work to inspire others to preserve what we learn to love.
We currently have five interviews finished: Jody MacDonald, Daniel Fox (Nature photographer and spokesperson), John Francis (Planetwalker and National Geographic Explorer/UN Environment Ambassador), Latriece Branson (Drum Like a Lady and Radical Adventures in Wellness) and Lauren Kahn (Certified Nature Therapist) and Florence Williams, Journalist, Author and Podcaster. We continue to research and reach out to our next interviewees: Terry Tempest Williams - writer and naturalist (Refuge, The Hour of Land); Suzanne Simard - biologist/writer (Finding the Mother Tree); Andrew Forrest - CEO Fortescue (iron ore mining as the new green business), Robin Wall Kimmerer - Professor and writer (Braiding Sweetgrass) and Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous public speaker, artist, scholar and community organizer. We are also reaching out to the Citizens Climate Lobby for interviews to discover what is being done in the political sphere to move us forward.
Another facet of these themes of healing ourselves through association with the land, and the reality that we must care for the earth, is the current story of farming. Regenerative farming and sustaining the soil, water, earth for our own needs as well as the needs of the natural world are all topics currently being researched.
We are in contact with a Hadza elder, one of the last cultures that subsist wholly off grid and off the land, as hunter gatherers based in Northern Tanzania. We are on course to return to Africa in January 2023 to complete our interviews.
A film by Alexandra Lexton