Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers takes us along on her epic quest to map the world's fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it's too late.
Beneath our feet lies a mystery. A complex underground network of mycorrhizal fungi keeps our ecosystem alive by exchanging nutrients and carbon with almost all plants on Earth. Remarkably, no one knows exactly how these sophisticated and ancient systems operate, or how they are affected by climate change.
The Underground Astronaut follows evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, named one of the 2022 TIME100 Next Innovators, on her quest to map the world's fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it's too late. A fragrant and high-stakes journey into the soil. “No fungi, no future.”
The Underground Astronaut is part of Ammodo Docs, a series of short documentaries about original minds in arts and science.
The film focuses on the life experiences of people who have a personal connection to the border with the United States and have ended up stranded in the Mexican city of Tijuana.
The short film Cuando llegue la neblina (When the Fog Comes) portrays the lives of people from the Mexican border city of Tijuana. Through a combination of photographs, animations, and audio recordings, the film delves into the daily realities of four individuals who have different connections to the Mexican-American border.
We meet Isna and Miche, two migrants who fled from Haiti, leaving their children and families behind in their home country. They undertook the exhausting journey through eleven countries to reach Mexico, hoping to get closer to their dream of the “American Dream”. We encounter José Luís, a Mexican man who, after eight failed attempts to cross the border, now waiting for the next fog to try again. We also meet Gustavo, a lifeguard who rescues migrants from the waters as they attempt to swim around the border in the sea.
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.