Fools’ Paradise (Lost?)

A filmmaker who late in life acquired an organic apple farm, Alexandra Lexton found herself searching for “stories of others who’d reconnected with nature in different ways, then brought their experiences in some meaningful way into the world.”  This beautifully photographed documentary elicits wisdom from 10 such interviewees, including a globetrotting photographer, a journalist, a Navajo scholar, an ecotherapist, Marin’s famed “planetwalker” Dr. John Francis, and experts in mindfulness and climate change. They explore how one person can indeed make a difference amidst escalating planetary crises, and how reversing the trend that replaces knowledge of nature with cellphone-focused insularity can help heal addiction, grief, depression, and other human ails.  Sprawling from an orchard meditation class to a Tanzanian tribe’s foraging terrain, Fools’ Paradise is a personal journey inviting viewers to “defend and protect and celebrate” our “sacred bond” with Mother Earth—before that opportunity is, indeed, a Fools’ Paradise (lost?)