Light Needs film screening

Join us for a film screening of Light Needs (2023) by American filmmaker Jesse McLean, alongside Sophie Koko Gate's animation Peace Tree.
About this Event

Light Needs is an experimental documentary about houseplants who cohabitate with people and the surprisingly intimate and complex relationships that can develop between them. A screening of Sophie Koko Gate's animation short Peace Tree (2026) will precede the film.

Light Needs contains footage collected from many different domestic and professional spaces over several years. Yet, this film is ardently not a document of houseplants but rather a consideration of the benefits and losses accrued through the social contracts between plant and animal. By directly attending to the relationships humans have with nonhumans, Light Needs looks to shine a light on the responsibility for care towards other living beings.

Peace Tree was commissioned by The Folly Tree Arboretum Animation Anthology, a series of short animations created by artists working across a diverse range of styles to tell the stories of trees in the Folly Tree Arboretum collection. Peace Tree, by animator Sophie Koko Gate, tells the story of a Hibakujumoku, or A-bombed ginkgo, a tree that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and continues to live today.

Duration: 74 minutes

Image: (1) Jesse McLean, Light Needs, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Verità Films. (2) Sophie Koko Gate, Peace Tree, 2026. Courtesy of the artist and Folly Tree Arboretum.