The Mushroom Speaks
Marion Neumann
This film will also be available online on our VoD platform from March 29 to April 10, 2022. Please note: This film will only be available in Germany.
»Fungi challenge me to explore the unknown, to look beneath the surface, to adapt, to respect imperfections, to slow down and always seek an alternative path. Through the fungal lens I tend to see the world in its innumerable connections.« – Marion Neumann
What connects us when our environment is falling apart? One answer to this pressing question is mushrooms. With an earth-spanning network of tiny threads, they play a key role in preserving our ecosystem; they are a symbol of the connectivity of more-than-human life and of exemplary forms of collaboration. They decontaminate toxic waters and soils and have significantly influenced life since the beginning of time. In her film, Marion Neumann links current positions like interconnecting mycelia; she meets mushroom collectors, activists and researchers all over the world, including anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, one of the most inspiring thinkers of our time. Some mushroom lovers are fascinated by the visible part of the mushroom, the fruiting body – others by the fine, usually invisible network of tiny threads. Neumann’s camera penetrates the microscopic and seductively beautiful layers of the mycelium and carefully follows the passionate protagonists to their spheres of action. She invites us to radically examine our relationship with the natural world around us and to imagine a healing fungal (r)evolution.
This film has been nominated for the Audience Award endowed with 1,000 euro. Please vote after watching the movie.
You can find an overview of all nominated films here.
Marion Neumann
Marion Neumann, geboren 1977, studierte Dokumentarfilm und Kamera an der Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in München. Ihr erster Spielfilm This Moment Is Not the Same war ein dreijähriges Gemeinschaftsexperiment und feierte 2010 beim Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon Weltpremiere. Als Bildgestalterin wirkte Neumann unter anderem bei den Filmen Wild Plants von Nicolas Humbert und Naturales Historiae von Pauline Julier mit. Weitere bekannte Kollaborator*innen sind Jiska Rickels, Michel Favre und Werner Penzel. In ihrer Arbeit verknüpft Naumann dokumentarische und experimentelle Ansätze und bettet die Erzählungen in Wissenschaft und sozialen Themen ein. The Mushroom Speaks ist ihr zweiter abendfüllender Film als Regisseurin.
Filme von Marion Neumann (Auswahl)
This Moment Is Not the Same 2010 | Callshop 2006 | Spurensuche 2005 | Ma ngi fi 2005 | Gehen oder Bleiben 2005 | Aufstand der Bilder 2003 | Anderer Herbst 2003