Review of Super Nature (2025)
Seen in 2026.
People all over the world film local wildlife on Super 8 mm film, a format that is itself in danger of going extinct.
The structuring premise of this documentary is just a gimmick. Its director, Ed Sayers, implies that analog film is a more direct way to observe nature because you cannot instantly review the footage, but that is dubious. You can still fret over your camera settings, and any camera will change how you move and think to produce a representation. I think the beauty of this film has more to do with the organic noise of the chemical image and the extra cost and difficulty of producing it, which stands as evidence of effort.