Sentinels
2022 · 25m · USA
Directed by Derek Knowles, Lawrence Lerew
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, surreal, tender
An observational documentary following young environmental activists from Redwood Forest Defense who conduct a multi-year tree-sitting campaign — living on platforms 100 feet above the ground — to prevent logging company Green Diamond Resource Company from clear-cutting a redwood forest in Humboldt County, Northern California.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Tree-sitters in the redwood canopy filmed lingering on filling water jugs — deliberately patient activism doc, exactly the kind of thing that needs the long takes. Respect.
Lingering on the mundane logistics of long-term tree-sitting — how long a rainwater jug takes to fill — is exactly the durational gesture that distinguishes patient observational documentary from activism reel. Aeon-quality work.
Twenty-five-minute Aeon observational documentary that deliberately lingers on mundane logistics like filling a jug with rainwater to convey the temporal scale of years-long tree-sit commitment — that's a specific editorial choice about how time itself becomes the subject. Aeon's curatorial standard is rigorous.
Reviews
The Portland documentarians capture a Humboldt County, Calif., tree-sit with a bare, sensorial, vérité style.
A reminder of what we must save in order to save ourselves.
Festivals
- Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2022
- San Francisco Documentary Festival 2022
- DOC NYC 2022
- Indy Shorts Film Festival 2022