Power Plants (2003)

Power Plants takes us into the world of some extraordinary plants and tells us their story. Far from a dry academic discourse, this series proves that plants do much more than just set the stage for life; in fact, like humans and other animals, they play a very active role in it. Power Plants presents some unusual "plant stars" filmed just as animals might be. The techniques of macrophotography give us an "up close and personal" look at their world, while fast motion photography paints a revealing portrait of their territorial conquests, their fighting and seduction techniques, their double-dealing, and their opportunism. We thus gain firsthand knowledge of the plants' strategies at the level of both individuals and species. The narrative explains how plants adapt to the world around them, but also how they modify it. It stresses their "actions" rather than their appearance or anatomy. In so doing, it treats them like "characters" in their own dramas, highlighting the traits they have in common with humans and other animals and the universe they share with us. For this reason, the stories are deliberately intense, structured as investigations with many dramatic twists and turns.