MEADOW REPORT
35mm film
Colour, sound
11 min
2021
The title of this work makes reference to what is known as the “Meadows Report”, a political ecology book titled The Limits to Growth published in 1972. Commissioned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was the first simulation of the impact of exponential economic and population growth in a finite environment, and warned of the likely outcome of capitalist societies.
Shot in Claude Monet’s Garden in Giverny (France) this film is a search for its cusp — a possible point of passage, set at the limit of the scope of representation and at the beginning of the animal and the vegetal realms. The film shows the microscopic ecosystem that constitutes Monet’s “pictorial Garden”. It is an attempt to capture it from a non-perspectival point of view.
Shot as a single sequence running the duration of a 400-foot reel, it features views of the edges of water-lily’s leaves and of Monet’s iconic green bridge, until the lens of the camera is intentionally removed to place the analogue film directly in contact with the environment, recording its presence with no interface. The abstract image resulting from this process captures the shimmering lights and movements of all beings during this quiet summer night.
Location: Giverny, France, August 2021
Camera: Arri 416
Lens: Angenieux 25–250 mm zoom
Stock: 7207/500T Kodak
Director of photography: Théodore Hugonnier
Focus puller: Léo Servant
Clapper loader: Tom Haudry
Editing: Heather Mills and Susanne Dietz
Processing: Kafard Films, Paris
Grading: Cristian Manzutto and Isabelle Julien – Ike No Koi
Post-production and sound executive: Cristian Manzutto
Thanks to: Fondation Claude Monet, Ombeline Lemaître, Claire-Hélène Marron, Jean-Marie Avisard, Alexis Hayer, Emmanuel Porc, RVZ Location – Frédéric Lombardo and Philippe Guillemain