There is always something inherently restorative about watching a nature documentary that takes you quietly and with real fascination through the seasonal cycles of one specific location.
You feel, almost immediately, as if you are immersed in this world, a feeling heightened to a wholly rewarding degree in Backyard Wilderness, which takes us from spring through to winter in one small but vitally important neighbourhood in New York state, by the fact that the narrative focuses on one 11-year-old girl, Katie (Annie Fabian) who discovers how wonderful it can be to put down her devices, step out into the forest the near-encircles her home, and discover the magical animals and plants on her doorstep.
Created as a way to get kids engaged in the world around in, Backyard Wilderness uncovers the myriad delights of a backyard, granted one bigger than most suburban kids would recognise but which encourages people, children in particular, to realise that nature doesn’t just lurk in grand, big “w” wildernesses but in the surrounds of towns and cities, a growing occurrence in our increasingly urbanised world.
Rich with the wonder of the cycles of life, Backyard Wilderness does a brilliant job of linking people and animals & plants and showing just interconnected we are, and that we have a part to play in not simply learning about the natural world but in playing an active world in safeguarding it.
Katie’s journey from somewhat disinterested bystander to active participant in the health of the natural world around her is mirrored by the journey of the 2018 documentary’s (newly-arrived in Netflix) audience who come to appreciate how wondrous nature can be.
At the beginning, Katie is simply trying to finish a school project which asks her to document some part of local environment, but soon she goes from simply trying to earn a good grade to genuinely caring about the animals and birds just outside the home where, prior to this slow-moving epiphany, she spent all her time.
And it’s easy to see why the denizens of the forest get into her heart.
Backyard Wilderness uses some cutting-edge filming, including cameras mounted insides dens and nests, to show us how, for instance, wood ducks raise their young up in hollows high up on tree trunks before getting them down to the ground in a way that will have your heart in your mouth or how salamanders and frogs depending on temporary bodies of water known as “vernal springs” to raise their young.
So intimately and deeply does the documentary take you into the world that you are aloft in the air flying alongside blue jays and galloping through the forest with deer, with all of these close-up visuals making nature feel the most immediate it has ever felt, outside of the wizardry of high-end BBC productions.
Backyard Wilderness is truly a thing of high educational worth and visual wonderment, and the hope is that by watching it, that kids, and yes, even their parents, will realise that though we live in an increasingly interior, digital world that “wi-fi is not the only connection that matters”.
In fact, countless studies have shown how much we need to be in nature to reconnect with the truth of who are as living beings on this planet, and this gorgeously produced documentary drives the point home with beguiling wonder and a real love for its subject matter.
It is near impossible not to get swept up in the sheer beguiling bliss of Backyard Wilderness which succeeds in delivering a timely message without once feeling preachy or overdone; in fact, what sways you in the end is the sheer immersion into this world, and unless you are made of concrete, you can’t help but be moved by it.
If you’re an educator, there are resources available to drive the messaging in the film home still further, and families will also no doubt benefit from watching the film.
Backyard Wilderness is a beautiful film about an undeniably beautiful world which lies just outside our doors, and it almost demands, in its quietly understated but persuasively powerful way, that you don’t just watch it but respond to it, and put down all those electronics, open the door and glory in how wonderful the world just outside our door can be.
Backyard Wilderness currently streams on Netflix.