“Everything is connected.” This concept, applied to everything from nature to society, including our lives in the digital age amid climate change, was promoted by German naturalist and polymath Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th century. His thinking and the pros and cons of interconnectedness are key themes explored in filmmaker and environmentalist G. Anthony Svatek’s feature Humboldt USA, which world premieres in the international feature film competition of the 57th edition of the documentary film festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland, on Wednesday, April 22, before its North American premiere on May 2 at the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look festival.
The kaleidoscopic film travels to different parts of the U.S. that bear Humboldt’s name to follow urban activists promoting the greening of neglected neighborhoods, scientists scanning redwood forests and people returning bighorn sheep to protected land. “Across generations and landscapes, Humboldt USA asks what remains of a vision of ‘interconnectedness,’” reads a synopsis.
“As the film progresses, its form mirrors the annihilation of place and time, reflecting modern technological and infrastructural interconnectedness that contributes to our alienation from the natural world,” Svatek (Some Thoughts on the Common Toad) highlights in a director’s statement. “At the film’s core, viewers are asked to question notions of ‘nature’ and ‘environmentalism’ in order to spark imaginations and encourage action. In an effort to break up entrenched beliefs that the environmental crisis is solved by consumerist and individualistic means, Humboldt USA celebrates the multiplicity of ways in which Americans relate to and protect nature – even within frameworks that contribute to the unfolding crises.”
The filmmaker also describes Humboldt as “a foil for pushing against the dominant Western scientific paradigm from within,” as the movie draws parallels between his own life and circumstances and the life and epoch of Humboldt. “This serves multiple purposes: from establishing a relation to Humboldt, to critiquing the dominance of colonial and polluting infrastructure, to showing how technology changes our sense of space,” Svatek shares. “Humboldt and I share an approach of constant code-switching and questioning – by connecting with his outsiderness as a traveling gay colonial figure, I ask how his insights, 200 years later, may be useful or harmful in untangling ourselves from the technological web.”
Svatek wrote and directed Humboldt USA, while cinematography was handled by Sean Hanley and the filmmaker. Editing is courtesy of Kaija Siirala and Svatek. The film is a production by Svatek and Elijah Stevens of Space Time Films, which is also handling sales.
THR can now exclusively premiere a clip from Humboldt USA. “Four score and seven years ago…,” we hear while seeing images of a Scheels shopping destination. Yes, that is part of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, and it turns out Lincoln takes an animatronic form here. But why are we in a shopping mecca with an indoor ferris wheel and an aquarium?! Why those figures of Thomas Jefferson and other U.S. presidents?! And what about those animals, both real and in taxidermy and statue form?! Especially those Desert Bighorn Sheep?!
Watch the Humboldt USA clip below to see, hear and sense more of what awaits you in this cinematic exploration of nature and human alienation from it.
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