Photographer and Filmmaker Ryan Stopera teamed up with Lyricist, Poet, and Award-Winning Producer SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE to produce ‘Listen.’, an original short film and musical poem in three movements. The product is a call to action wrapped in an evocative visual love poem, just in time for Earth Day.
Stopera shot the footage on travels across New Zealand, Iceland, Utah, California, and Minnesota. “Over the last year, I was able to travel to a lot of amazing places that reminded me of how we are slowly killing this incredible place we call home. I wanted to incorporate elements of water, time, and human connection to Earth...to inspire us to protect it”.
See More, coming off a year that included a poetry commission for the Ordway and releasing the Xicanx Futurist Boom Bap EP ‘SEE MORE EYE JACK’, produced and penned an original score and poem for the film. The poetry of ‘Listen.’ offers a series of riddles that invite the viewer to imagine Mother Earth’s point of view as we hurt her, but ultimately destroy ourselves. See More brings us from the big bang to modern day, painting the picture of a beautiful, cosmic entity who’s consciousness is the sum of her parts.
While starting in a place of darkness, Stopera and See More ultimately create a journey to the light. The surreal narrative arc offers the substantiveness of both loss and hope. By the end, the audience is brought into a meditation of what is and what’s possible, considering what our place can be in healing our planet, and ourselves.
seemoreperspective.com
Tar Sands Resistance March footage shot by Xiaolu Wang
Additional footage shot by Uli Hamacher
