Call of the Forest: an earnest and sobering documentary

Irish botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger guides us through the film. Credit: Treespeak Films

Sort of a cheerful doomsday warning, the Canadian documentary Call of the Forest offers a look at the history of trees across the world, and what man taking them away has done to the earth over time. Using the amiable Irish botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger as a guide, Jeff McKay’s film travels to Japan, California, Ireland and Canada to visit various forest growths and lay out what their worth is to the world—clean air, nutrients, ecosystems, fresh water—while planting metaphorical red flags about the consequences of their destruction. It’s all very earnest and sobering, not to mention beautifully shot by the director himself.