There’s a double meaning in the title of Laurence Billiet and Rachael Antony’s new documentary: Australia’s giants of ecological activism – one in particular, the former Greens leader Bob Brown – and the kind that are made of wood and rooted in the ground. The film opens with vision from Tasmania’s Styx valley of Eucalyptus regnans, the tallest flowering plants on Earth. These trees are, as Brown puts it, “bigger than any of the dinosaurs … bigger than the blue whales” and “rooted in Australian soil”. The camera ascends next to one, climbing and climbing, reaching towards the heavens, as if comprehending its awesomeness.
This pairing of such majestic images with Brown’s commentary introduces this inspiring and elegantly crafted film’s two core elements, wrapped together like a double helix: Brown’s story and the story of the trees.
