PRODUCTIONS: THE HERON TREE

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C. Carlotto, D.Cini, G.De Fiore, G.Mammolotti, G.Pancaldi, A.D'Onofrio

SD Cinematografica

30'

16 mm

What does the trees represent in human culture? Besides practical aspect such as supplying wood, fruit, leaves and shade, the tree has served man as the subject of every sort of fantasy.
Walnut trees housed witches and the door to the other life opened through the hollow trunk of an olive tree.
Understanding how the tree has stirred pur imaginations, can perhaps help us to understand ourselves better. It can certainly help us develop a more direct relationship with the plant kingdom.
About a thousand herons return to the most industrialized area of Italy every year. They live together in colonies and inform each other when danger approaches. However, unlike other species, each couple must provide for the defense of its own brood.
In the most industrialized area of Italy, Which includes Milan, Genoa and Bologna, live some of the largest colonies of herons in Europe. A few tall poplar trees among the smoke-stacks and factories is all a heron needs to found a community. The colony's proper name is a "heronry".
Sometimes even one large tree is enough. The documentary tells the story of a heronry situated in an isolated tree and the life revolving around it. "Wild Side Of Europe" observed the colony through all four season, revealing a fascinating fresco of nature. The activity of the heronry is mingled with that of people working in the fields in this forgotten angle of the Padana plain.