Balance something else came up in the search cue: The Force of Nature.
By chance I had stumbled upon Sazuki’s docu-biopic, only showing in
Seattle for two days. What a treat! My astro van decided to help out
with my commitment to riding my bike more and driving less by biting
the dust in a busy intersection, much to the entertainment of me and
my friends. What that means is I had no excuse but to ride the bus
through town, savoring in a rare moment of peaceful, albeit bumpy,
tranquility.
I ended up in lower Queen Anne, a neighborhood of Seattle I haven’t
spent time in since I lived in the Denny regrade in a low income
apartment with my best friend. The Force of Nature is playing at SIFF
Cinema at The Film Center which is tucked under the Space Needle, (
which is painted a lovely warm orange in honor of the anniversary of
the worlds fair) with a bunch of other cool stuff like The Vera
Project and Seattle’s Ballet Hall.
I rushed in expecting Sazuki’s movie to be sold out, but I was the
only person there, as well as an older couple waiting in the lobby. I
asked the attendant if the movie was sold out and he looked kind of
surprised. I guess I expected more Pacific Northwestner’s to flock to
this movie. Oh well. Eventually 12, -count it twelve! –other people
showed up, mostly older couples with peppery hair. I’m not trying to
sound condescending. I was the youngest person in attendance. Part of
me was hoping that the audience would be a little more jam pack and
diverse considering the content of the film.
I was originally turned on to David Sazuki when I watched a
documentary called I Am, at the tail end of winter quarter of Making a
Difference. Sazuki talks about Argon, an inactive gas in the oxygen we
breath, tying us to every other living organism, all the way back to
the brontosaur and even Jesus Christ. I felt this is to be incredibly
moving and was turned onto his work. It’s funny how you can live your
life, unbeknownst to the fact that someone so amazing exists on the
planet at the same time that you do.
The Force Of Nature is Sazuki’s last lecture and he does a brilliant
job at interweaving his life’s narrative with that of the
environmental and social problems that we all face. It’s sad that the
majority of the people watching the movie were those who got to live
and experience the nascent stages of the environmental movement and
not the “me” generation who desperately need a reconnection to the
natural world.. This documentary deserves the same distribution as The
Cove or Waiting for Superman; at least so young Americans can think
about the fate of the planet, told from a kindred spirit, even if it’s
over popcorn and candy. It’s a start.
Outside of what it means to be an “environmentalist” the movie
touches upon themes of family and the importance of place. At the end,
I tilted my head sideways, and let big salty tears fall, thinking
about my dad and my grandma, all the people important to me, and how
lucky I am to have them.
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