A Year in a Field

A Year in a Field is not made by a climate scientist. It is a local, lo-fi, low-impact film - in contrast to the overblown, blue-chip, carbon-generating film productions that fly the globe in pursuit of unfamiliar wonders to address the climate emergency through tech-driven cinematic dazzle - more akin to science fiction. "How do we respond to such monumental and remote stories?" BAFTA-winning documentarian Christopher Morris invites us to slow down, as he films for a year in a West Cornwall field; to immerse ourselves in this quiet, direct-action of stillness, to take a breath and reflect on the planetary impacts of our brief human existence, under the watchful gaze of the Longstone, an ancient monolith that predominates this elemental landscape. From Winter Solstice 2020 to Winter Solstice 2021, a string of unprecedented worldwide climate disasters, met by weak global political resolve, are revealed as just fleeting moments, under the ever-present unflinching granite gaze of the Longstone. There are no interviews or experts in this film. In fact, there are no human beings at all; instead, an unassuming Cornish field near Land's End takes centre stage, and a crop of spring barley forms the centre of an unfolding, compelling and beautiful narrative. The field is extraordinary in one respect - at its centre is the Longstone, a 4000-year-old standing stone, carved, and thrust into the soil at a time when humans first began on an industrial scale to adversely affect the planet. This pillar of granite has stood silent sentinel to everything we have done and continue to do to our planet. The ominous stone figure forms the central protagonist in this sublimely unique film - it points to where we have come from and perhaps where we are headed. A cultivated field, an ancient monolith, and a transitory human observer. This film is a record of their brief interaction.