Light Needs review a blooming lovely meditation on plants and their people

"This experimental documentary by Jesse McLean about houseplants inspired me to go around my house and water all my vegetal housemates and treat the mealybug infections afflicting the jade plants in my office. Now I feel better for it in every way, while also basking in the afterglow of this luminous piece of film-making that is cinematic fertiliser for thought."

"A man who cares painstakingly for the many plants in the Golda Meir library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee speaks more pragmatically about the art of repotting and optimal placement. His manner comes across as eminently self-effacing but clearly his knowledge is grounded deep in years of close observation, like of many of the other plant lovers we meet here. That includes two aging bonsai specialists who movingly celebrate the oldest specimen's gnarls and scars, which speak of the tree's history."

"Elsewhere, a young man discourses passionately about integrating plants as design elements into minimalist decor, their abundance and randomness a welcome challenge to the austerity of his aesthetic principles. Throughout, McLean weaves in abstract photography as well as on-screen text that is meant to represent a plant speaking, describing what photosynthesis feels like for them. It feels good to become unstable, to turn light energy into chemical energy, the text says. Botany fans wil"

Watering and treating mealybug infections on houseplants can produce physical and emotional benefits, including a lifted mood and renewed attention to plant health. The material presents a range of human-plant relationships, from a woman who believes a plant withered from loneliness and revived when reunited with another, to a pragmatic caregiver at the Golda Meir library who discusses repotting and optimal placement. Two aging bonsai specialists celebrate a tree's gnarls and scars as markers of history. A younger enthusiast advocates integrating plants into minimalist design to challenge austerity. Abstract photography and on-screen text convey plant perspectives and describe photosynthesis as turning light into chemical energy.

Read at www.theguardian.com