Light Needs

Jesse McLean – Director’s Statements

The film came to life when I was visiting a friend’s apartment and noticed how many plants were crowded on their small kitchen countertop, leaving mere centimeters of space to prepare their meals. Why were they so willing to award houseplants this valuable real estate? The answer was simply that the location received the best light. A houseplant enthusiast myself, I wondered, would I be willing to give up such prime space to plants?

Having plants in the house is common. Consider the living room filled with a towering Ficus or an array of succulents crowded along a sunny windowsill. But when did bringing plants inside become commonplace? In Western culture, prior to the Victorian era, decorative vegetation lived outside in gardens. When plants came inside, humans committed domestic space to these green lifeforms, importing and breeding exotic species from faraway climates. Today most of our common houseplants are tropical varieties that would not survive without human care.

The relationships people have with domesticated plants are various. Plants can remain ornamental or be awarded emotions and an inner life or just thought of as objects to be tossed if they lose their leaves. What are our obligations, as humans, to these adopted nonhumans who have become captives of sorts in our homes and work environments? 

This documentary looks at people who all dedicate significant portions of both their lives and their living/working spaces to taking care of plants. The relationships between the humans and the plants vary, from obligation to business to science to aesthetic to emotionally dependent. This film not only documents the stories of the human subjects but also their green companions, using speculative and fantastical methods to imagine a range of experiences from the plants point of view. More than just a document of houseplants, this film aspires to rethink the relationship humans have with nonhumans, and the responsibility for care towards other living beings.