Film & Discussion: “Seasons” || Center for Global Justice

In Seasons (2015), Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud return to familiar ground: the lush green forests and megafauna that emerged across Europe following the last Ice Age. Winter had gone on for 80,000 years when—in a relatively short period of time—the ice retreated, the landscape metamorphosed, the cycle of seasons was established, and the beasts occupied their new kingdom. It was only later that man arrived to share this habitat, first tentatively as migratory hunter/gatherers, then making inroads in the forest as settled agriculturalists, and later more dramatically via industry and warfare. With its exceptional footage of animals in the wild, Seasons is the awe-inspiring and thought-provoking tale of the long and tumultuous shared history that inextricably binds humankind with the natural world.

The images are gorgeous. At times you feel like you’re moving through a dream, being pulled into the flow of other animal species as they move through their habitats as they interact with each other and the world around them. Seasons has the advantage of its focus on a timeline, showing the gradual incursion of man into this earthly paradise.