Directed by Josh Fox • Documentary • 2025 • 108 minutes
What is humankind's role in nature? Is there such a thing as Nature? What does the word mean? Are human beings simply destroyers of biodiversity and balance or do we have another purpose? In The Edge of Nature, Oscar-Nominated, Emmy-Winning director Josh Fox isolates himself in the woods amidst a dreamscape of rising worldwide crises.
After a harrowing bout with COVID, Josh isolates himself in a one room cabin in the forest for four seasons. Everything in the film is done in isolation— from the building of the structures to the harvesting of foraged plants to discovering the principles of the forest. The pandemic calls into question everything that our civilization has done to dominate natural world. The plants tell the history of the land; colonialism is literally rooted into the ground. Invasive species are in a war for turf every day against native plants. Surrounded by authoritarianism and the descendants of the Native American genocide, Josh investigates his own history as son and grandson of Jewish holocaust survivors who created a safe haven among the trees. Like a Coronavirus cocoon, the woods become protection and imagination. Nature itself is a call to action, a value system and a mystery that we must protect.
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