The Martian
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
Far from Heaven
In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.
Being There
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
The Lawnmower Man
A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
A New Leaf
After running out of funds, Henry Graham, a carefree playboy, plots to marry and murder wealthy botanist Henrietta Lowell.
Borrego
A young botanist relocates to a small desert town to study an invasive plant species. While out on research, she comes to the aid of a downed plane only to find herself taken captive by an inexperienced drug mule who forces her to lead a trek across the sweltering desert to his drop. A local sheriff is drawn into the hunt as his rebellious daughter sets out to find the missing botanist, all the while being pursued by a local drug receiver.
Conversations with My Gardener
A successful artist, weary of Parisian life and on the verge of divorce, returns to the country to live in his childhood house. He needs someone to make a real vegetable garden again out of the wilderness it has become. The gardener happens to be a former schoolfriend. A warm, fruitful conversation starts between the two men.
A Scent of Paradise
Stockholm 1956. The Swedish botanist, candidate and lieutenant Nils von Ekelöw, presents his research to a panel of professors.
Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey
Plant Explorer Richard Evans Schultes was a real life Indiana Jones whose discoveries of hallucinogenic plants laid the foundation for the psychedelic sixties. Now in this two hour History Channel TV Special, his former student Wade Davis, follows in his footsteps to experience the discoveries that Schultes brought to the western world. Shot around the planet, from Canada to the Amazon, we experience rarely seen native hallucinogenic ceremonies and find out the true events leading up to the Psychedelic Sixties. Featuring author/adventurer Wade Davis ("Serpent and the Rainbow"), Dr. Andrew Weil, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and many others, this program tells the story of the discovery of peyote, magic mushrooms and beyond: one man's little known quest to classify the Plants of the Gods. Richard Evans Schultes revolutionized science and spawned another revolution he never imagined.
I Watched Her Grow
Seven years after the mysterious death of her mother, an isolated botanist meets an enigmatic, teenage runaway in a creek. Forming an unexpected bond, the two embark on a harrowing journey to confront their respective pasts, all while slowly realizing that they may not have to face their uncertain futures alone.
Walden
After returning from a year-long Moon mission, Cassie, a NASA botanist, finds herself in a remote cabin in the woods, where her estranged twin sister, Stella, a former NASA architect, has found a new life with climate activist Bryan. Old wounds resurface as the sisters attempt to pick up the pieces of the rivalry that broke them apart.
Flower Power - Dutch Women Painters of the 17th Century
In the 17th century, advances in the natural sciences and the invention of the telescope led Dutch women painters to closely study nature and include reptiles and insects in their art. Women such as Maria Sibylla Merian, Alida Withoos and Maria Moninckx advanced botany and zoology with their highly detailed paintings. Almost forgotten, now their works hang in many important museums around the world.
Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom
When scientists in the Antarctic uncover a mysterious seed pod, the Doctor is called in to investigate. He soon realises it is extraterrestrial and extremely dangerous. At the same time, however, ruthless millionaire plant-lover Harrison Chase has learned of the find and decides he must have the pod for his collection of rare and beautiful flora. Meanwhile the pod itself harbours intelligent life with sinister plans of its own...
Kalamazoo
A Montreal man imagines a mermaid in place of the writer whose picture appears on a novel.
Wives Never Know
The blissful marriage of Homer and Marcia Bigelow is disrupted when Marcia hosts a party for one J. Hugh Ramsay, author of the bestselling book, "Marriage—The Living Death".
Bizarre, Bizarre
A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin – an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.
Apache County War
A botanist has a run in with a group of cocaine dealers and is kidnapped, but not before calling on her brother for help.
The Snow Creature
A botanical expedition to the Himalayas captures a Yeti and brings it back alive to Los Angeles, where it escapes and runs amok, seeking food.
There are things in this world that are yet to be named
"There are things in this world that are yet to be named" centers around Solanum plastisexum - an Australian tomato whose sexual expression is unpredictable and unstable, challenging even the fluid norms of the plant kingdom. Footage of the team of botanists who recently used their Solanum research to explode notions of sexual normativity in any plant or animal is combined with a voiceover of letters sent between science writer Rachel Carson and her lover Dorothy Freeman. "There are things in this world that are yet to be named" is a meditation on erasure, indefinability, and the intersection of queer and environmental histories.
Claustro
Short film in competition at the 48Hours Film Project. Sci-Fi/Mystery genre. Directed by Simone Marsella, starring Ludovica Castrichella, Dario Grasso and Federico Imola.