Shifted Landscapes

Shifted Landscapes illuminates the pervasive impact of the climate crisis on California through an array of stories. In Monterey, a group of volunteer divers and marine biologists smash invasive purple urchins with hammers in an attempt to save the kelp population, already decimated by warming waters. A scientist works to spare a forest from infestations of bark beetles by using their unique and eerie sounds against them. A fire lookout monitors the Sequoia National Forest, while in the Sierras, a group of morel foragers looks for the season’s harvest amidst the leftover debris of the fire season. The town of Pajaro, home to mostly farmworkers, struggles to understand how their area was flooded, while adjacent wealthier communities remained dry and unscathed.

The documentary combines rich sound design with meditative, slow takes to embed viewers in these shifting spaces, communities, and landscapes. Intertwined vignettes depict the smaller and larger environmental changes occurring across California, bringing to light the processes that are shaping the environment and altering lives.