Supernature documentary explores nature and climate fears
A new documentary shot entirely on Super 8 film explores personal connections with nature and climate fears, as director Ed Saye promotes it on a low-carbon bike tour.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A new documentary called Supernature is making its way to UK cinemas, offering a deliberately low-tech counterpoint to the high-definition nature films that dominate the genre. Shot entirely on antique Super 8 cameras by 40 different people, from Tasmania to the UK, the film is described as a poem to the natural world, capturing private connections with nature and the fears people hold about a changing climate.
The project began during lockdown, when filmmaker Ed Saye asked fellow Super 8 enthusiasts to film whatever they wanted about their own relationship with the natural world, and to record their anxieties about increasingly chaotic weather. The result is a sumptuous collage of analogue images, which Saye says carry a particular magic. Looking through an old camera without a monitor, with limited film, forces you to study the scene and decide when to shoot. The footage may be out of focus, but as Saye puts it, that imperfection makes the brain work harder, turning viewing into a kind of playtime or puzzle.
Saye has just begun a low-carbon bike-packing tour around the UK to promote the film, and his journey has brought him face to face with the very climate fears the documentary explores. Riding between Liverpool and Sheffield on the Trans Pennine Trail, he saw reservoirs reduced to a fraction of their normal levels, with contour lines of mud exposed and water pooled only at the bottom. He described the sight as shocking, and said he half expected to see a Spitfire or a hunger stone emerge from the dried earth. Near Dunwich, recent wildfires had destabilised a World War II bomb test site, leaving signs warning of danger from heat trapped in tree roots.
Despite these unsettling sights, the message Saye has taken from his fellow filmmakers is one of care. The resounding theme, he says, is our capacity to really care about our home, and the reminder that we have only one planet. Supernature goes on general release this Friday.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | Channel 4 |
|---|---|
| A documentary was shot by 40 different people from Tasmania to the UK. | |
| The director promoted the film via a low-carbon bike tour around the UK. | |
| The film captures people's fears about climate chaos. |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
Channel 4's report focuses on the documentary's analogue, low-carbon approach as a meaningful response to climate anxiety. It weaves the director's personal reflections on the bike tour with specific examples of climate impacts he witnessed, framing the film as both an artistic project and an urgent environmental statement.
- “It was like these old cameras were compelling us to record.”
- “These cameras are over 50 years old. They take film cartridges that run out every couple of minutes. And yet somehow they bring you closer to what you're filming.”
- “The resounding thing that I'm hearing is just that our capacity to care, really care about our home, and we've only got one.”
Broadcast Timeline
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