Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Symbiotic Earth

Biography • 2h 27m

Directed by John Feldman • Documentary • 2018 • 147 minutes

SYMBIOTIC EARTH explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a brilliant and radical scientist, whose unconventional theories challenged the male-dominated scientific community and are today fundamentally changing how we look at our selves, evolution, and the environment.

As a young scientist in the 1960s, Margulis was ridiculed when she first proposed that symbiosis was a key driver of evolution, but she persisted. Instead of the mechanistic view that life evolved through random genetic mutations and competition, she presented a symbiotic narrative in which bacteria joined together to create the complex cells that formed animals, plants and all other organisms - which together form a multi-dimensional living entity that covers the Earth. Humans are not the pinnacle of life with the right to exploit nature, but part of this complex cognitive system in which each of our actions has repercussions.

Filmmaker John Feldman traveled globally to meet Margulis' cutting-edge colleagues and continually asked: What happens when the truth changes? SYMBIOTIC EARTH examines the worldview that has led to climate change and extreme capitalism and offers a new approach to understanding life that encourages a sustainable and symbiotic lifestyle.

Tags
andre fortin, animals, anthropology and archaeology, anton de bary, autopoesis, bacteria, barbara mcclintock, betsey dexter dyer, biography, biology, blue green algae, boston university, bullfrog films, capitalist zeitgeist, carbon cycle, carl sagan, chemistry, chloroplasts, cilia, climate change, competition, coral, coral bleaching, creationism, critical thinking and ethics, cyanobacteria, darwin, denis noble, descartes, dna molecules, don williamson, dorion sagan, douglas zook, earth science, ecology, education, endosymbiosis, energy and resources institute new delhi, environment, environment1, environmental evolution course, epigenetics, eukaryotic, evolution, exploiting nature, expository, extreme capitalism, federico mayor zaragoza, five kingdoms, flagellum, fritjof capra, fungi, gaia theory, gender studies, genetic determinism, genetics, genomes, geology, gregor mendel, hans ris, herbert spencer, history, history of science, human genome project, humans as pinnacle of nature, hybridization, ivan wallin, james lovelock, james shapiro, jan saap, laissez-faire economics, lamarck, life as a process, lymphocytes, lynn margulis, male-dominated scientific community, margaret mcfall-ngai, marine biological lab, marine biology, martin brasier, mary catherine bateson, mechanistic view of life, microbes rule the world, microbiology, microbiota, minakatella, mitochondria, mitosis, morten laane, mycorrhizal fungus, nasa, natural selection, nature1, neo-darwinism, nitrogen cycle, nucleotides, origin of the species, ovid, ovid_ca, oxford debate with richard dawkins and lynn margulis, oxygen cycle, philosophy, physical science, plants, prokaryotic, protists, protoctists, puffer's pond, random genetic mutations, reductionism, richard dawkins, richard guerrero, s_0014, s_0029, s_0030, s_0039, s_0077, s_0079, s_0090, s_0123, s_0145, s_0185, s_0219, s_0289, s_0290, s_0494, s_0519, s_0596, science and technology, scientists, scott gilbert, selfish gene, separating man from nature, sir richard roberts, spirochete, stem education, stephen harding, survival of the fittest, symbiogenesis, symbionts, symbiosis, symbiotic earth, symbiotic world view, systems thinking, tim lenton, title_nopqrs, title_s, uc berkeley, university of chicago, university of massachusetts amherst, university of wisconsin, viruses, women's history, women's studies, woods hole, worldview leading to climate change

Up Next in Biography

  • Mario Ruspoli, Prince of the Whales
    1:16:41
    Mario Ruspoli, Prince of the Whales

    Mario Ruspoli, Prince of the Whales

    Directed by Florence Dauman • Documentary • With Richard Leacock,
    D.A. Pennebaker,
    Albert Maysles • 2011 • 76 minutes

    Dauman, whose father was a lifelong friend and producer of Ruspoli’s, uses her privileged perspective to produce an intimate portrait of this revolutionary but often overlooked...

  • Bronx Gothic (Okwui Okpokwasili)
    1:33:16
    Bronx Gothic (Okwui Okpokwasili)

    Bronx Gothic (Okwui Okpokwasili)

    Directed by Andrew Rossi • Documentary • With Okwui Okpokwasili • 2017 • 91 minutes

    From director Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside the New York Times, The First Monday in May) comes an electrifying portrait of writer and performer Okwui Okpokwasili and her acclaimed one-woman show, Bronx Gothic. R...

  • Jay Myself
    1:18:16
    Jay Myself

    Jay Myself

    Directed by Stephen Wilkes • Documentary • With Jay Maisel • 2019 • 79 minutes

    JAY MYSELF documents the monumental move of renowned photographer and artist, Jay Maisel, who, in February 2015 after forty-eight years, begrudgingly sold his home—the 36,000 square-foot, 100-year-old landmark buildin...

×