Jennifer Wallace On Nature In The City
Jennifer Wallace, whose chapbook Minor Heaven is included in Desire Path, has been up to more than poetry lately. During the past two years she has turned her attention toward producing a documentary that explores the notions of where nature begins and where it ends. The film narrows in on the perspectives of people living in Baltimore and maps quite an interesting range of responses.
The film begins with an interesting representation of the city-scape, dissecting a photo along shape lines before reassembling the place. I was surprised at how it forced me to be aware of the contrasting elements in a scene. And later I was surprised again at how often people mentioned “trees” when thinking of “nature.” I sometimes take for granted how central they can seem in a city.
My experiences living in cities and places nearly empty of people have led me to the understanding that “nature” is everywhere. It’s a complex word with a lineage that recognizes “‘essential qualities’ and ‘innate disposition,’ as well as ‘creative power in the material world.’” The root natus means “born” and the latin natura includes the “‘course of things, natural character, the universe.’” To me, this sounds pretty inclusive and suggests that we belong to nature, which would further suggest that our actions are also natural.
This is where it gets complicated. We can quite easily speak of human nature and the natural world in the same sentence, and the two seem to have almost nothing to do with each other. The word is entirely dependent on our perceptions of the world, which is exactly what Wallace’s film explores. As I’m still pondering these questions and have a different foundation for my understandings, I’ll let the film speak for itself.
Below you’ll find a rough-cut, un-narrated version of the film.
