GFF 2026: Super Nature
Director Ed Sayers assembles Super 8 footage from contributors in 25 countries in this heartfelt testament to the natural world and DIY filmmaking
On paper, Super Nature is a very simple concept: give amateur filmmakers across 25 countries a Super 8 camera and some film, and then turn them loose to shoot the world around them. The resulting film, clocking in just over an hour long, is a beautifully textured odyssey through nature and humanity.
Sure, it might be somewhat contrived – notably in director and editor Ed Sayers’ attempts to impose a super-narrative with voiceover, when the narration from participants is far more characterful – but is it also surprisingly and genuinely moving. The variety of creatures, landscapes, and socio-ecological relationships filmed makes one imagine what their own natural and built landscapes might look like on Super 8 (and may even inspire some amateur filmmakers to pick up vintage cameras!).
Sayers notes that the physical and technological limitations of Super 8 make it impossible either to shoot hours of footage or to perfectly frame what you see for the lens of social media. The resulting work feels appropriately and refreshingly retro and vibrant. Scenes captured include birds of all kinds, aquatic life, monkeys (from a participant who was previously frightened of them), and the uneasy interaction of unfettered human growth against the natural world. Scenes of climate change-fuelled flooding are all too immediate and modern, breaking up the idyll and romance of the project with the threat that, without care and caution, there will be less and less world to film.
Slight but enjoyable, Super Nature is a heartfelt testament to DIY filmmaking.
Super Nature had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival