Terraforming: Historical Vision, Stakes, and Limits

Screening followed by a discussion with directors Kevin Brennan and Laurence Durkin

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The documentary TerraForma tells the remarkable story of Ascension Island, a remote volcanic outcrop in the South Atlantic Ocean that emerged from the sea just over a million years ago, a geological infant in Earth’s 4.6‑billion-year history. Located approx­i­mate­ly 1,600 kilometers from the nearest landmass, this barren island sat largely lifeless for millennia, a stark landscape of volcanic rock and ash with minimal vegetation, earning it the nickname ​“cinder island” from early mariners. Its youth meant that life had barely begun to establish itself when humans arrived.

Discovered by the Portuguese on Ascension Day in 1503, the island remained uninhabited until the British established a naval garrison there in 1815, following Napoleon’s exile to nearby Saint Helena. What followed was one of history’s most ambitious ecological experiments. When Charles Darwin visited in 1836 aboard HMS Beagle, he was struck by the island’s barren desolation and suggested it should be made into a ​“productive spot.” Seven years later, in 1843, botanist Joseph Hooker visited and, encouraged by Darwin’s vision, developed an ambitious plan to transform Ascension’s barren peak, Green Mountain, into a lush garden. Beginning in 1847, Hooker who would later direct the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, arranged for ships to bring plants, trees, and seeds from across the Empire eucalyptus from Australia, bamboo from Asia, Norfolk pines from the Pacific creating an entirely artificial ecosystem on the island’s summit.

This Victorian-era ​‘ter­raform­ing’ project reshaped the island’s ecology to fit the political and economic demands of the British Empire estab­lish­ing a verdant supply station for ships and a symbol of imperial power over nature but only at the expense of what existed before it. The new environment, seemingly a paradise, was in fact a mirage: a mirror image of Victorian ambition, empire, and under­stand­ing of the natural world. And as such, it was doomed to fail in unexpected ways. Many believe that future plans to geo-engineer our planet, or terraform others, would simply follow the same pattern.

With the help of experts in the fields of geo-engineering, ecology, politics, and design, the documentary TerraForma explores the lessons we could learn from Ascension Island’s unique history. What does its story mean for our planet in a future where terraformed landscapes and human-engineered envi­ron­ments may come to warp our under­stand­ing of ​‘nature’ itself?

Original Title: TerraForma
Directed / Written / Produced by: Kevin Brennan & Laurence Durkin
Production Company: Sil­ver­strand Productions
Country of Production: Ireland
Year: 2023
Duration: 62 minutes
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Kevin Brennan est artiste et cinéaste. Son travail explore les liens entre paysage, identité et relation de l’homme au monde naturel. Depuis 2017, il collabore avec Laurence Durkin et signe avec elle, en 2020, le court métrage Undertow. TerraForma marque une nouvelle étape dans leur partenariat créatif, confirmant leur intérêt pour les enjeux écologiques et les récits documentaires novateurs.

Laurence Durkin est un réalisateur de doc­umetaires qui s’intéresse aux récits où s’entrelacent identité, paysage et trans­for­ma­tion des envi­ron­nements naturels. Il travaille avec Kevin Brennan depuis 2017, et leur première réalisation commune, Undertow (2020), a posé les bases d’un langage ciné­matographique commun. Avec TerraForma, il poursuit cette exploration des tensions entre nature et intervention humaine.