PUSHED UP THE MOUNTAIN is a poetic and emotionally intimate film about plants and the people who care for them. Through the tale of the migrating rhododendron, now endangered in its native China, the film reveals how high the stakes are for all living organisms in this time of unprecedented destruction of the natural world.
Beginning in the Director’s godfather’s garden in the Scottish Highlands, the film travels between conservationists in Scotland and China who devote their lives to the rhododendron’s survival. Patiently observed footage of conservationists at work combines with centuries-old landscape paintings and my speculative voice to create a thought-provoking film about human efforts to protect nature for and from ourselves.
Co-Hosted with
with Special Guest speaker Peter Norris
Peter Norris has been growing rhododendrons for over 50 years. He had a garden on a ¾ acre lot in West Tisbury until it became filled with rhodies. In 2000, he and his wife Amy bought their current home in Chilmark, where he grows over 2000 species and hybrid rhododendrons, including many of his own creation. Peter was a volunteer at Polly Hill in the late ‘80s and a member of their Board for 9 years. He is currently on the Board of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and a member of the American Rhododendron Society Research Committee. He recently traveled on a rhododendron trip to Southeastern Tibet as well as several trips to China, one of which was hunting rhododendrons with the Rhododendron Species Foundation.
