Metamorphosis, a new film by Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper elegantly and beautifully illustrates how the ecological crisis “is an opportunity for transformation.”
Many of us are grieving in the face of environmental devastation, climate change and ecosystem collapse. It’s especially difficult for those who know about and advocate for solutions but constantly face opposition from people, often in positions of power, who refuse to even acknowledge the problems, let alone do anything about them.
How do we transform our grief into positive action? Metamorphosis, a new film by Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper that will be released theatrically in Canada in June 2018, opens with frightening images of destruction and expressions of anguish — cyclones, fires, drought, toxic industry. But, like an insect transforming from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, it gradually shifts to a new vision — one of positive action, imaginative solutions and inspiring possibilities.
Throughout, it uses the metaphor of the caterpillar becoming a butterfly. “We’re caterpillars now. We’re eating everything in sight,” one of the film’s voices says. “I think we could morph into beautiful creatures.”
The film elegantly and beautifully illustrates how the ecological crisis “is an opportunity for transformation.” Many solutions depicted are transformative — people re-purposing water-wasting swimming pools to self-contained eco-gardens, lawns converted to gardens that build healthy soils and sequester carbon, sculptures that become ocean habitat, buildings that incorporate trees for heating, cooling and carbon storage…
Promoted as “A poem for the planet,” the Clique Pictures/Transparent Film/National Film Board of Canada co-production “takes the pulse of our Earth and bears witness to a moment of profound change: the loss of one world, and the birth of another.”
With spectacular imagery and deep wisdom, the film takes the viewer on an emotional journey from anger and sadness to hope and joy. Its vision of a better future and the many people and ideas that are taking us there should inspire viewers to join in healing the world we’ve treated with such ignorance and disdain.
