Super 8 film captures a close-up of a silver fritillary butterfly.
Natural Hunter Film LLC
Super Nature
Ed Sayers, In UK cinemas 2026
Ed Sayers, a director of commercials and music videos, has a passion for Super 8, the motion picture format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak. He's not alone: the exquisite film cassettes survive thanks to the support of a small global community of filmmakers.
What makes Sayers stand out is his organizational skills. Its first feature Super Naturewhich premiered at the London Film Festival last month, brings together Super 8 footage from 25 countries, shot by 40 filmmakers and local enthusiasts who capture the natural world close to where they live.
When I read the plot of this movie, I admit I was hoping for 82 minutes of sparrows and house cats, but boy was I wrong.
While the film's distributor BFI makes much of its “green” reputation, given that it is a worldwide documentary that has racked up exactly zero air miles, the value is bad publicity. It's better, of course, to emphasize how strange everything looks in this portable, lo-fi format.
Super 8, Sayers says in voiceover, looks as if “someone drew your memories for you.” The literal truth of this becomes apparent when you are immersed in the glare, glare, shaking and changes in hue and tone of the environment. The Super 8 world is closer to the one we see: it's not polished, not posed, well-lit, or even perfectly focused, but the world itself isn't either.
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Among the film's many charming moments is the observation that puffins have “the kindest eyes.”
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However, it is often stunningly beautiful, just like this film. It's hard to make out some of the more ambitious shots, which feature some of the smallest, fastest, most solitary creatures. But the animal does not become smaller because we only caught a glimpse of it. The only episode that didn't work for me was the migrating geese. Despite the fact that the shot was beautifully shot and edited, the editing (microlight and two cameras) turned out to be too inventive, too “staged.” It is better to lie in a puddle in the rain with a plastic bag on your head while removing the snail.
High budget character filmmaking takes a diametrically opposed approachrevealing the world as the eye cannot see it (or as it may not exist). Impulse to discover new worlds wonderful – and I affirm it Walking with Dinosaurs it's a joy – but I can't help but wonder if audiences, intoxicated by the beautifully lit, staged and timed wonders, will become jaded.
Super Nature shakes everything up wonderfully. Structurally, it is built around the story of its creation. Each scene (flamingos, worms, corals, etc.) is accompanied by each director's voice explaining what the shot means to them. Among the many charming moments are the description of the sounds puffins make as they run (buffoonishly, as if they were wearing huge slippers) and the observation that “they have the kindest eyes.”
The evidence can be inspiring: Some filmmakers turned to the Super 8 because they needed a new way to see the world after misfortune had shortened their lives to a certain point. Others serve green pies; some people should stick their heads under a cold water tap (in Capricorns, apparently, you can see the wisdom of the mountains).
There's also Sayers' story. Act One: The director has a grand ambition to capture the natural world using ancient technology and local filmmakers. Act two: the director loses hope, editing footage of floods, fires, Ukrainian trenches and plastic garbage. Act three: the director is applauded, and the project is redeemed by the playful antics of the seal.
It's as good a narrative shot as any, but it's completely predictable in a way that stills never are.
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