DocFest Exchange: Beyond Our Own Eyes

Symbiotic Earth (2017)

Sun 7 November 2021

Tickets no longer available

Image credit: Symbiotic Earth (2017) John Feldman

Symbiotic Earth explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a brilliant and radical scientist, whose unconventional theories challenged the male-dominated scientific status quo and are today fundamentally changing how we look at ourselves, evolution, and the environment.

As a young scientist in the 1960s, Margulis was ridiculed when she first proposed that symbiosis was a key driver of evolution. Instead of the mechanistic view that life evolved through random genetic mutations and competition, she presented a symbiotic narrative in which bacteria joined together to create the complex cells that formed animals, plants and all other organisms. Margulis’ symbiotic narrative, and the Gaia Theory that all life is interconnected and interdependent, present an alternative to the destructive worldview that has led to climate change. Humans are not the pinnacle of life with the right to exploit nature, but part of this complex cognitive system in which each of our actions has repercussions.

John Feldman (147’, USA)

Sheffield DocFest: Beyond Our Own Eyes Weekender

This event is part of the Sheffield DocFest: Beyond Our Own Eyes Weekender at CCA, Glasgow. For the full programme please click here.

Venue Guidance

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