Walden

A chainsaw noise cuts the silence in the monastery forest of Admont. This is the beginning of a tree's journey from Austria to the Amazon. By train, truck, boat and by hand, the wood is transported to a mysterious final destination in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest on the Rio Negro. Thirteen extended 360° camera pans become a subtle and meditative commentary on the absurdity of the economic logic underlying our globalized world. Past a total of 13 stations (forest, sawmill, customs), the camera follows the wood in finely composed 360° pans, along one of the central raw material trade routes, but paradoxically in the opposite direction of transport.

Keywords

  • Austrian Films
  • Award Winning
  • Exclusive Docs: New Perspectives
  • Forests/Deserts
  • Topic: No Planet B
  • economy
  • natural
  • north south
  • sixpackfilm

Director

  • Daniel Zimmerman

Documentary


1h 47min


16+

SV

Austria
Switzerland
2018
The voyage of a tree from Europe to the Amazon is a silent wittness to global interdependencies and economic absurdities.

The voyage of a tree from Europe to the Amazon is a silent wittness to global interdependencies and economic absurdities.


A chainsaw noise cuts the silence in the monastery forest of Admont. This is the beginning of a tree's journey from Austria to the Amazon. By train, truck, boat and by hand, the wood is transported to a mysterious final destination in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest on the Rio Negro.


Thirteen extended 360° camera pans become a subtle and meditative commentary on the absurdity of the economic logic underlying our globalized world.



Past a total of 13 stations (forest, sawmill, customs), the camera follows the wood in finely composed 360° pans, along one of the central raw material trade routes, but paradoxically in the opposite direction of transport.

Festivals

Cast & Crew