CAST
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Suzanne Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of the newly released book When the Forest Breathes and the Best Seller, Finding the Mother Tree.
Time Magazine deems Simard's work revolutionary and named her one of The 100 Most Influential People of 2024. Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; and is hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls in James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.
Simard is most known for her work on how trees interact and communicate using below-ground fungal networks, which has led to the recognition that forests have hub trees, or Mother Trees, which are large, highly connected trees that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest. Her current research investigates how these complex relationships contribute to forest resiliency, adaptability and recovery and has far-reaching implications for how to manage and heal forests from human impacts, including climate change.
Her TED talks have been viewed more than 10 million times, and her 200-plus peer-reviewed articles have deeply informed the thinking of conservationists and environmentalists working to help preserve forests in a world ever more threatened by climate change and wildfires. The trees, Simard teaches us, are talking. It is our job to start listening.
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Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of The Service Berry, Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass, which recently celebrated five years on the New York Times bestseller list.
Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both Indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. In 2022 she was named a MacArthur Fellow, and she received the National Humanities Medal in 2023. In 2025, she was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people.
Kimmerer launched her movement, Plant, Baby, Plant, in 2025 as a way for individuals to engage in loving the natural world around them. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, and an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin, and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge, and restoration ecology. She lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild.
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Paco Calvo is a Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Murcia, Spain, where he leads the Minimal Intelligence Lab (MINT Lab)—the world’s only laboratory housed within a faculty of philosophy dedicated to the study of cognition and intelligence in plants. He is one of the most distinctive and publicly compelling voices at the intersection of science and philosophy working today.
Calvo’s interdisciplinary work combines insights from biology, philosophy, and cognitive science to explore the fascinating world of plant behavior, decision making and problem solving. By investigating the complex interactions and adaptive responses exhibited by plants, Paco Calvo has significantly contributed to our understanding of cognition beyond the animal kingdom, challenging conventional perspectives on intelligence and mental capacities.
He is the co-author, with Natalie Lawrence, of Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence, published by Norton in the United States and Little, Brown in the United Kingdom. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in leading journals including Trends in Plant Science, Annals of Botany, and the Journal of the Royal Society.
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SUZANNE SIMARD
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ROBIN WALL KIMMERER
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PACO CALVO
CREATIVE TEAM
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Su Rynard is a Canadian filmmaker whose award-winning work spans short film, documentary, and dramatic feature films. Known for her distinctive visual language and an ability to find the poetic within the scientific, her recent films explore the complexities of the human relationship with the natural world.
Her features include Understory (2026), an exploration of the quietly radical world of plant sentience; Duet for Solo Piano (2020), an intimate portrait of pianist Eve Egoyan; The Messenger (2015), a visually thrilling documentary on our deep-seated connection to songbirds; and Kardia (2005), a dramatic feature about a woman who discovers that a heart operation has mysteriously linked her life with another's.
Rynard’s films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Sarajevo Film Festival, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, and Montreal's RIDM, among others. Awards include the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, the Prix Buffon from Pariscience, a Top Ten Audience Award at Hot Docs, and Best Conservation Film at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.
Earlier in her career, Rynard established herself as a media artist, with work exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Gallery of Canada. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, a former Director Resident at the Canadian Film Centre and member of the Directors Guild of Canada. She lives and works in Tkaronto (Toronto).
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Nadine Pequeneza is an award-winning documentary director-producer, fiction screenplay writer and the founder of HitPlay Productions in Toronto. Over the past 10 years, her films have garnered 12 Canadian Screen Award nominations, including a CSA for Best Writing; the Gold Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival and Sichuan Festival’s Gold Panda Special Jury Award. She is a 3-time nominee for the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary. On the festival circuit, HitPlay’s films have premiered at Hot Docs, VIFF, DocEdge, Ji.hlava and other notable festivals.
Pequeneza’s fiction screenplays are based on more than two decades of filming true stories around the world. Her first feature script 1047 DAYS was a semi-finalist for the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship 2023, and the adapted short was selected for the CFC/Netflix Calling Card Accelerator. Her second feature RARE EARTH was selected for Stowe Story Labs, Athena Writers Lab and the Alfred P. Sloane Fellowship 2025. Her latest script DESCENT, a 60-minute TV pilot, was selected for The Writers Lab Canada 2026, a top-10 finalist in Final Draft’s Big Break Competition 2025 and winner of the Cinequest 2025/26 teleplay competition.
HitPlay will release two feature documentaries in Fall 2026: UNDERSTORY, a Canada-Spain co-production (Telus, Knowledge Network, CMF POV, Telefilm, Redford Center, Caixa Forum, ICAA, ICEC, ) and THE WAR CRIMES UNIT a Denmark-Canada co-production (DK, DFI, CBC, CMF, Rogers).
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Carles Brugueras founded Barcelona-based independent production company Polar Star Films in 1997 and, for almost three decades, has overseen the production of award-winning fiction films, documentaries and commercial projects. As Managing Director and Executive Producer, he leads the company's strategic development, international co-productions and financing, working with partners including RTVE, 3Cat, ARTE, BBC, France Télévisions, Netflix, HBO and Movistar.
In 2023, for the second consecutive year, Carles received the ProDocs Best Producer Award. His producing credits span internationally acclaimed fiction and documentary. Fiction highlights include Con el viento (2017), which premiered at the Berlinale and won Best Film at the Málaga Film Festival, and Dúo (2022), winner of the Special Jury Prize at Málaga. His documentary work includes McCurry: The Pursuit of Color (2021), which premiered at DOC NYC, The Builders of the Alhambra (2022), the Netflix Original The Last Dolphin King (2022), and the recent international co-productions Balomania (CPH:DOX, 2024), The Click Trap (Hot Docs, 2024) and Only on Earth (Berlinale, 2025).
Under his leadership, Polar Star Films continues to champion ambitious international productions that bridge documentary and fiction while supporting bold cinematic voices.
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Marieke joined Polar Star Films in 2012 as Head of the Documentary Department, where she leads international financing and oversees the development and production of the company's documentary slate. She has secured financing through Creative Europe MEDIA, Eurimages and major European broadcasters including ARTE, ARD, TVE, HBO Max and Netflix.
Her recent productions include Only on Earth (2025), a Denmark–Spain co-production that premiered at the Berlinale and won the Best Nordic Documentary Award at Nordisk Panorama; Mums (Mares, 2025), winner of the DocsBarcelona Audience Award; The Click Trap (2024), a France–Spain co-production that premiered at Hot Docs and won the ProDocs Award for Best Television Documentary; Balomania (2024), which premiered at CPH; and Infiltrats (2024), an investigative television documentary co-produced with 3Cat and La Directa, which reached more than half a million viewers on its premiere broadcast.
In addition to co-producing Understory, Marieke is presently working on the international co-production Unicorn: Breaking the Law Is Our Business (expected in early 2028), a film that examines the practices and influence of billion-dollar Unicorn companies such as Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo, and Faces & Traces, a feature documentary exploring themes of identity and surveillance set in Chongqing, China.
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SU RYNARD
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NADINE PEQUENEZA
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CARLES BRUGUERAS
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MARIEKE VAN DEN BERSSELAAR
