I am a huge fan of nature documentaries. I can have marathons of them during the weekend. Unfortunately, it seems that actually finding good ones is rather difficult, and I'm fairly sure I have watched quite a bit of the selection provided by Netflix Instant Play - we don't get the DVD delivered. But every once in a while I'll scroll through the recently added and find something rather beautiful and meaningful.
Yesterday I came across a 23min "documentary" on forests. The short film did not have anyone speaking, there was no commentary, and no human was ever actually filmed. Instead, it was 23 minutes of heavenly panoramic views of forests around the world. There was of course, calming, instrumental music in the background.
Moving Art was founded by Loui Schwartzberg, and according to the site features scenes from nature and cities to not only educate, but perhaps also inspire the audiences to think about those landscapes differently. I think it might be difficult for people to simply watch for about half an hour a video that has no conversation, and is really all about nature. But I imagine that with practice, we are all able to enjoy these artistic takes on movie making. And I believe it really teaches us that we don't necessarily have to rely on a ton of special effects or even human involvement; and instead we can show landscapes and places as they truly are. Which, in my opinion, really opens the doors to a new conversation about movie-making.