Super Nature

After seeing French filmmaker Roger Batteault’s Super 8 short film of flamingos in flight, Ed Sayers was inspired to give filmmakers and animal lovers from around the world their own antique Super 8 cameras to capture the natural world around them. The result is Super Nature, a magnificent journey across multiple countries and environments that emphasises humanity’s relationship with nature.

There’s something uniquely tangible about watching Super 8 film. There’s no CGI or camera trickery. What’s shown on the screen is what the filmmaker saw through the viewfinder. The crackle of the film and its many imperfections also lend a timeless feel to the image, with its narrow aspect ratio inviting audiences into an intimate moment. “It feels like we’ve made a home movie together,” Sayers notes at one point during his narration. Alongside the obvious aesthetic comparison, this allegory is also meant in terms of memory. Several of the contributors share and reflect on their personal connections to areas where they grew up, bringing viewers even further into the frame.

The vignettes transport viewers to England, Kenya, the Amazon, across the US, and countless other locales to see an even greater variety of wildlife. Each section is centred around its own talking point, such as familial ties to specific ecosystems, conservation efforts, or local customs. By combining them together, Sayers’s feature debut becomes a spellbinding collage of sights and perspectives tied together by a sublime score by Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres. Although some moments are less captivating than others, there are a handful of stories contained within the brief 82-minute runtime that could become their own feature-length project. Notable segments include the last surviving Northern White Rhinos and living alongside monkeys in India.

Despite the simple point-and-shoot way of filming, Super Nature constantly finds new ways to delight. Whether it’s on land, underwater, or from the air, each shot is a spectacular triumph of filmmaking. There’s no moment in this documentary as magical as soaring alongside a flock of geese to the uplifting soundtrack of Flying by the band Faces. By choosing to film entirely on Super 8, Sayers and collaborators have created a wonderfully tactile and raw work of cinema with Super Nature. It’s both a tribute to nature and a stark warning of the problems it faces. Above all, though, the feature is a powerful reminder of humanity’s connection to the world around us.

Andrew Murray

Super Nature is released in select cinemas on 4^th September 2026.

Watch the trailer for Super Nature here: