Beyond the Now

Logline:
A meditative exploration of the forest as both a Romantic symbol and a site of contemporary crisis, Beyond the Now contrasts historical utopias with present-day realities.

Short Synopsis:
Beyond the Now critically examines the forest as an emblem of both Romantic longing and ecological uncertainty. Inspired by Italian landscapes immortalized by German and European Romantic painters of the 18th and 19th centuries, the film reflects on idealized visions of nature, escapism, and utopian futures. Set against this historical backdrop, the work juxtaposes these ideals with stark images of a present-day forest scarred by wildfire. Through this tension between the hopes of the past and the realities of the present, Beyond the Now offers a poignant meditation on landscape, memory, and the shifting relationship between humanity and nature.

Beyond the Now engages with the forest as both a cultural construct and a site of ecological tension. The film departs from the Romantic imagination of landscape—particularly as shaped by 18th- and 19th-century German and European painters—and examines how these idealized representations continue to inform contemporary perceptions of nature.

Through a combination of staged and observational sequences, the work considers the forest as an archive of aesthetic projection and environmental crisis. The visual grammar oscillates between cinematic composition and documentary trace, revealing a terrain marked by both historical longing and material degradation.

By revisiting the forest as an emblem of refuge and renewal, Beyond the Now situates itself within broader discourses on environmental melancholia and the persistence of Romantic thought in the Anthropocene. The work thereby explores how landscapes become palimpsests of human imagination—spaces where utopian desire and ecological vulnerability converge.