Each summer for more than half a century, the US ecologist and biologist David Inouye has returned to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado. Working out of a small cabin, he examines how life is persisting and changing in the high-altitude mountain meadow, focusing on the relationship between wildflowers and hummingbirds. As To Know a Place details, this pilgrimage has become a family affair, with his son Brian and granddaughter Miyoko joining the annual excursion to help measure, count, observe and share how time and climate are shaping life in the meadow. The Colorado-based director Brendan Young’s documentary is a stirring portrait of both place and family. Capturing the sweeping beauty of the region, the film explores why the often-exciting, ever-evolving and always-humbling business of understanding how life works on even a small slice of Earth is a ceaseless pursuit.
Director: Brendan Young
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Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
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Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
4 minutes
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
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Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
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Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
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Biology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
11 minutes