Lichens Are The Way
Ondřej Vavrečka & Ondřej Vavrečka / Czech Republic & Slovakia / 2024
It represents not a culture of more, but a culture of enough: lichens. And two men around in the wilderness.
Lichens are amazing organisms. It is a combination of a fungus and an algae. These two entities – God knows why – decided to cooperate with each other. That my life is not more important than yours, i.e. the life of a mushroom than the life of an algae, that your life is not more important than my life, i.e. the algae. The relationship between the fungus and the alga is more important to the lichen than the relationship of one living organism to itself. This is how lichen is created: by an unknown mysterious decision that living together is more beneficial than living on your own. It is true that fungi have a hard time photosynthesizing and algae have a hard time breaking down sugar. Thus, their union brings an advantage to both partners. Purely cinematic film shot in environment of Canada’s home in wilderness by lichenologist Trevor Goward and his partner.