Written by Kendra Frankle, Photo courtesy of Now or Never Film
When I think about Earth, there isn’t a specific piece of it that pops into my head. I think of lush green forests and strong blue oceans. My mind then wanders over to the snowy alps and vibrant cities. What a wondrous world we live in. A wondrous world is exactly what the shorts spotlight features. From “Thin Places” in Iceland to the “Coral Keepers” in the Florida Keys, “Shorts Spotlight: A Wondrous World” follows intriguing stories relating to the planet.
Although very motivating, the shorts were often quite disheartening, but that might be something we all need to see. We might need to see the rarest great apes, the Tapanuli Orangutans, lose their homes and the coral reefs entirely disappear before it embeds in our brains that our Earth is dying. We cannot just tear down forests as we please for personal or economic gain. The world was never supposed to have to adapt to us, but we were supposed to adapt to the world. Based on these films, the crew has a good idea of this.
The first short focuses on Iceland, using beautiful cinematography. Next comes the orangutans. This film is wonderfully narrated and crafted, with a great balance of cuteness (provided by adorable baby Tapanuli Orangutan, Cynthi) and a harsh reality (provided by the cutting of all the trees).
We then move from land to sea. We’ve known coral reefs have been dying for quite some time now. Even so, lots of us seem to continuously ignore it. Well, this film did nothing to help this. Admittingly the underwater shots were fascinating; however, the film did not motivate, nor did it give us anything besides a stereotypical documentary. Interview, then footage and repeat.
The last two films focus more on human life than Earth. The connection, however, remains the same. As we follow our logger into the depths of the Ardennes forest, we watch as him and his horse interact with nature. With a sense of impracticality, the logger does stick to this theme of humans needing to evolve for the world, not the other way around.
“History of Memory” tracks how people’s lives were changed by single photographs. The characters’ cultures and backgrounds added to the theme, “there is always a memory in each photo.” The heart-warming stories from each person is a lovely way to wrap up the group of shorts.
