Fantastic Fungi - a film by Louie Schwartzberg

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$109,387 pledged of $100,000 goal

This project will be funded on Sat, Apr 11 2015 1:59 AM EST.

Support our life-affirming, climate-changing, bee-saving film about mushrooms, featuring Paul Stamets and produced by Lyn Lear.
Los Angeles, CA Documentary

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Fantastic Fungi

fantasticfungi.com

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About this project

Help us reach our stretch goal of $125,000. The additional funding will give us the budget we need to film time-lapse of mycelium, giving the perspective of lifting up the forest floor to reveal the mysteries of this underground network.

An all-star team of artists, scientists, doctors and explorers are joining forces to create a life-affirming, mind-bending film about the mushroom and its mysterious root-like structure: mycelium. What they reveal will blow your mind, and possibly save the planet. Join us in this Year of Soils (as declared by the United Nations) to learn more about this critical solution for climate change.

Here's Louie Schwartzberg and Paul Stamets discussing the film:

Fantastic Fungi is an important scientific exploration and visual journey through the exotic, little-known realm of fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg, an award-winning master of nature imagery, special-effects cinematography and storytelling that is both informative and inspiring.

We begin with our cameras exploring a vast and startling realm. We discover fungi’s enormity; the largest organism on the planet is a 2,200+ acre mycelium fungal mat more than two thousand years old! We experience their beauty; our cameras capture jewel-like mushrooms in countless shapes and in brilliant colors, from pink and yellow to turquoise. And, ultimately, we realize fungi’s potential; the film takes us on a journey that reveals mycelium as the key to the regeneration of our living planet.

Mesmerizing time-lapse imagery reveals their remarkable toughness, as mushrooms power up through dead wood and stone-hard asphalt. As we watch fungi turn solid rock into soil, we grasp a key mechanism of life on Earth: fungi are not just decomposers, but composers continually producing the ingredients of new life, sustaining our ecosystem.

But these small, mighty miracles don’t stop there. The complex chemistry of mycelium produces antibiotics powerful enough to prevent many diseases and to stop pandemics, even an E.coli or smallpox attack by terrorists. Legendary researcher Paul Stamets explains, “Our strongest existing antibiotics come from fungi. They fight off the same microbes we do with defenses we can use.”

Paul goes on to explain that expanding fungi-generated soils around the world could absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and help control climate change. These organisms can be fantastic allies in our efforts to protect ourselves and to rejuvenate our entire ecosphere.

YES! An artistically-shot, scientifically-sound, life-affirming film about mycelium: the incredible, intelligent network under our feet that has the proven ability to restore our ecosystem, repair our health, and resurrect our symbiotic relationship to nature. Fantastic Fungi aspires to be an educational, inspirational, and ultimately critical film that explores the uses and benefits of fungi in three critical areas.

First, we uncover the research that shows mycelium as a viable alternative to western pharmacology, including treatment for breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and PTSD. Second, we reveal studies that point to mycelium as a solution to our gravest environmental challenges, such as toxic oil spills and colony collapse disorder. Finally, we marvel at mycelium's proven benefit on shifting consciousness and aiding in deep personal transformation. The research, discoveries, and anecdotal evidence we've gathered is astounding, particularly when shared through Louie’s visual storytelling.

Here's a sneak peak of our movie poster. Special thank you to Marianna Armata's photography. (Ooohhhh and aaaaahs are totally appropriate): 

You’re a filmmaker and you have a Hollywood producer? Why are you doing a Kickstarter campaign?

Simply put, big studios won’t make the film that needs to be made, can’t tell the story that needs to be told and aren't bold enough to create the change necessary to shift our climate and consciousness. Through Kickstarter, we can reach engaged citizens like you who are motivated to create meaningful change and who want to be a part of this revolution. When you vote with your dollar, you send a message about what you value. This is how we ignite meaningful change.

Mushrooms are mighty miracles that deserve a mighty film - a film that can only be told from the front lines, from the doctors, scientists, and artists who have learned the language of nature. Together we can create the shift in consciousness needed to restore our planet. 

Louie Schwartzberg (Director, Cinematographer), brought you Wings of Life, a Disneynature film about pollination narrated by Meryl Streep, the 3D IMAX Mysteries of the Unseen World currently playing worldwide in collaboration with National Geographic and narrated by Forest Whitaker, and the ground-breaking Ultra HD nature series, Moving Art, on Netflix. Louie is a master at making the invisible visible, unveiling the mysteries that are beyond human vision. He’s the recipient of two Clio Awards for Environmental PSA, an Emmy Nomination for Best Cinematography, The NAACP Pollinator Protector Award, the Jackson Hole Media Science Award for Best Immersive Cinema for Mysteries of the Unseen World, Best Theatrical Film for Wings of Life at the Jackson Hole Science Media Awards, Best Moving Picture Award from the Heartland Film Festival for America’s Heart & Soul, and Best Film Inspiration at the Ocean Film Festival for Gratitude. He was recognized as one of the "Top 70 Cinematographers" for the Kodak On Film Salute Series. He has wowed audiences on stages across the globe including TED, Bioneers, NASA and Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday. Louie directed and Lyn Lear produced What’s Possible to open the UN Climate Summit in New York, and A World of Solutions for the UN climate Summit in Lima. His three TED talks have been viewed over 45MM times worldwide.

Paul Stamets, the leading mycologist in his field, has discovered and coauthored several new species of mushrooms and pioneered countless techniques in the field of mushroom cultivation. Recipient of the Bioneers Award, the Founder of a New Northwest Award and National Geographic Adventure Magazine's Green-Novator and the Argosy Foundation's E-chievement Awards. He was also named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World”. In 2014, Paul was chosen to be an "Invention Ambassador" by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest and most prestigious scientific organization in the world.

Here's Paul talking about his hat, made 100% from mushrooms:

ORIGINAL: Kickstarter

by Fantastic Fungi