Two Birds Film

A documentary about the development around Barton Springs in Austin, Texas, and nature's unexpected response to being threatened by human interference.

A cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path.

All Illusions Must Be Broken is a cinematic contemporization of the work of American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker whose book The Denial of Death won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1974. Becker’s psychoanalytic exploration of human nature and his own personal testimony challenge us to move beyond our fears and see the beauty that surrounds our fragile lives.

One of the great pleasures of working on LOOK & SEE was collaborating with artist and wood engraver Wesley W. Bates. Wesley's work has long accompanied Wendell Berry's poetry. When he agreed to provide original images for our film we were truly thrilled. Because each image involves such painstaking effort, we asked Wesley to film a block from start to finish. At two hours long, the video is a distillation of three days of his effort. And Wesley provided over ten such engravings along with the film's signature block of Wendell Berry.