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| The 'Edge Movie' |
'The Edge' Giant Screen Movie Synopsis
The discovery and re-discovery of the Blue Mountains gives
us a chance to tell one of the great stories of humankind:
A story of learning to see. In these mountains we can tell
the story of coming to terms with the oldest, most varied
and most fragile ecology on earth.
The Blue Mountains wilderness is a unique and exquisitely
beautiful part of the world, protected until recently from
the encroachment of modern industrial society by its thousand
meter cliffs - but so very much more delicate than we have
ever understood that it is hard to feel any confidence that
it can survive much longer. Too many of the species of animal
and plant that are indigenous to the area already carry the
suffix "rare and endangered". It borders on a city of four
million people but is so little known that only in October
1994, an explorer found himself standing in a grove of "dinosaur
trees" that, until that moment, were believed to have been
extinct for more than twenty million years.
The earth here is so ancient that it is drained of almost
all nutrients. Plants and animals have evolved an extraordinary
economy. The Koala is arguably the most 'economical' animal
on earth, managing to grow to a considerable size on relatively
small quantities of leaves with almost no nutritional value
at all: But the same is true in varying degrees for nearly
all of the plants and animals of Australia. Each one has had
to evolve to fit its own tiny ecological niche making for
an extraordinary number of species but also making each species
extremely vulnerable to change. To survive in this place even
man the most adaptable of all species, had to evolve a way
of living that was exceptionally unobtrusive.
Agriculture wouldn't work here. The climate was always dominated
by the EI Nino effect making rainfall completely unpredictable
- and the poor, ancient soil would blow away if it was disturbed.
The aborigines (who developed intensive agriculture in New
Guinea tens of thousands of years ago) learned in Australia
to live lightly. They built a whole world view, a whole society,
on an enduring but delicate foundation of respect for the
earth.
The place is inconceivably ancient. Even by the standards
of geological time Australia has been in a coma. When the
Grand Canyon was three inches deep these valleys looked pretty
much as they do now. The infinitely patient process that forms
them creates magical places - the beautiful and dangerous
waterfalls and canyons of the Blue Mountains. The cliffs and
canyons are truly spectacular and offer mind blowing, but
non destructive recreation to jaded city folks. For the film
we will create the ultimate canyoning experience - seamlessly
merging the best of the best for a trip that, in real life,
would take weeks and very probably kill you.
The cloud filled valleys of the 'blue labyrinth' are perfect
for the floating aerial shots that are a favorite of audiences
for giant screen films. People love the sensation of flying
the and aerial shots are probably the best way to give the
audience a real sense of the geomorphology of this vast area.
The section that is "World Heritage" listed is the size of
Belgium. And there is even room for some humor: Old black
and white footage of hilariously overblown re-enactments of
the 'first' crossing - with whites in black make-up attacking
the intrepid sons of Albion. Bus tourists will get a kick
out of seeing the old open charabancs bouncing along the dirt
road to Jenolan and from the wonderful Frank Hurley film from
the early thirties featuring crocodiles of enthusiastic bush
walkers in plus fours yodeling as they march through the bush.
The elaborate European gardens of Mount Wilson offer a perfect
visual metaphor for the cultural baggage our white ancestors
unthinkingly bought to this utterly different continent. The
gardens are beautiful in their way but they are almost clumsy
by comparison with the elegant micro gardens of the Pagoda
country; formal and regimented compared with the rampant creativity
of old rain forest - and for all their varicolored blossoms
almost monoculture by comparison with the incredible range
of species to be found in these mountains.
We can tell the story of the Blue Gum Forest - a forest cathedral
that still exists because in the '30s a party of bush walkers
led by Miles Duriphy happened to arrive just as an intrepid
pioneer was about to start clearing the giant trees to make
way for an (inevitably doomed) almond orchard. The walkers
bought the land from the novice farmer and it was to form
the nucleus of the whole National Park.
And finally the audience will have the incredible privilege
of being taken to see the Wollemi pines.
There is nothing else remotely like them on earth. They are
huge - 120ft tall - and they look like no other living tree.
The nearest approximation is that they look like pine trees
with palm fronds replacing the branches and the leaves on
the fronds radiating out in four directions instead of two.ĘThe
trunk appears to be coated in Coco Pops. Very weird looking
indeed. There is just this one stand of about forty trees
in the known universe. Discovering them was as likely as finding
a live dinosaur wandering through the bush. Their exact location
is absolutely secret and the film crew has agreed to be blindfolded
for the trip to the location. Clearly everyone would support
any measures that were necessary to protect these trees. Their
loss would be a catastrophe. But so is the loss of any species.
Every loss makes the world and irrecoverably poorer place.
But for now this extraordinary environment with its unique
plants and wild life is still here: The web is torn but much
of it survives. We have a chance of protecting it from any
further loss. We have learned to see it - and that gives us
a great deal to celebrate.
The Edge Movie screens daily ... click here
for session times.
Running Time: 38 minutes.
for further educational information on the film just click
here
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