Do plants have a consciousness? Not if you look at it from a human scale. But maybe it is about time we stopped always doing just that. ‘Light Needs’ is a generous, thought-provoking and artistically inventive film that literally expands one’s consciousness and creates a space for empathy with other life forms – namely the houseplants that most of us live with. In an unpretentious but serious and empathetic exploration of the symbiotic relationship between human and non-human beings, we learn, among other things, what it feels like to turn sunlight into glucose from the inside. But we also meet a diverse range of people who let us in on their close and often deeply personal relationship with the plants they share their homes with. Visual artist Jesse McLean has previously shown several of her short works at CPH:DOX, and has made a free and open-minded contribution to the great current within contemporary culture which has turned to biology and the living to find new ways forward for both thought and action. (CPH:DOX)
Light Needs is an experimental documentary about houseplants who cohabitate with people and the surprisingly intimate and complex relationships that can develop between them. Containing footage collected from many different domestic and professional spaces over several years, each home/site evidences the different ways people cohabitate with and relate to plants. Yet, this film is ardently not a document of houseplants but rather a consideration of the benefits and losses accrued through the social contracts between plant and animal. By directly attending to the relationships humans have with nonhumans, Light Needs looks to shine a light on the responsibility for care towards other living beings. (JM)