Filmmaker Statement

LEAVES short film An ailing massive red oak tree tries to communicate with a woman it remembers. An academic woman in Texas becomes concerned when a massive red oak tree close to her cottage seems to be ailing, though she isn’t sure why it bothers her so much. At the same time, in her small cottage, her attention to her work is distracted by news reports she sees and hears. They tell in graphic terms of the out-of-control forest fires up and down the West Coast. Her attention is further pulled in the direction of other stories about the worsening conditions of the world’s rainforests which she discovers are disappearing at the astounding rate of 200,000 acres a day. Such stories are suddenly all she seems to hear and see on the radio or television or her computer. But when she hears/sees a science report about how trees actually communicate with each other, she begins to realize there may be a connection between her tree and what she is learning..... The film, about our connections wit