The Creeping Garden
| The Creeping Garden | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Tim Grabham, Jasper Sharp |
| Music by | Jim O’Rourke |
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Release date
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2014 |
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Running time
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81 minutes |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
The Creeping Garden is a 2014 British documentary film featuring various kinds of slime molds. The film uses retro cinematography and electronic music to enhance a connection between slime molds and sci-fi films such as Phase IV, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Blob.
The film describes the life and development of the various types of slime molds with the aid of experts and artists involved in their study. The directors involved Mark Pragnell, an amateur observer of slime mold who studies them in their natural element in the forest. Pragnell appears in several scenes in the film offering his observations.
Also appearing in the film are a visual artist, a computer scientist, a composer and others who describe the creative use of slime molds in their fields. Eduardo Reck Miranda, a composer, is seen playing the piano, while "jamming" with sounds produced by the slime mold as it gets electrically stimulated.Mycologists, myxomycologists and robotics engineers also appear. Amongst other things, the film shows that the growth patterns of the molds have similarities to the development of highways connecting cities together.
The music theme was composed by Jim O’Rourke.
The cinematography of the film uses techniques borrowed from 70s sci-fi films like Phase IV, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Blob, to indicate the similarity between the sci-fi genre and the behaviour of slime molds. To further enhance the sci-fi connection, the film uses retro electronic music and the typeface of its titles is reminiscent of the 1970s futuristic fonts. The film is presented in widescreen mode and scenes include showing slime molds moving using time-lapse photography.
According to the film website, the film poster was "loosely inspired" by the film posters of The Andromeda Strain and Phase IV. The same website also mentions that the two films were "a significant reference point for the making of The Creeping Garden". The poster was designed by iloobia, a London-based artist.
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