In a deactivated mining area, a birdwatcher strives to capture the scarce birdsongs, while a team of ethnobotanists faces the challenge of preserving one of the world’s largest natural history collections. Scientific practices from the past and present meet in the investigation of a 17th-century catalogue of Brazilian plants and animals. Published in Amsterdam, the book is a product of the Dutch expedition of artists and scientists in the country.
Taking its title from the motto of prince Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, governor of the Dutch colony in Brazil, the film reexamines the relationship between colonial expansion and ecological exhaustion through the archives of Brazilian natural history stored in European collections over the centuries. Filmed inside the Mauritshuis in The Hague – former residence of Johan Maurits –, at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, at Copenhagen University's herbarium collection and at the port of Rotterdam, the film sparks a reflection on the lasting impacts of colonialism on how nature is perceived and preserved today.
The narrative draws inspiration from a watercolor by Georg Marcgraf, a naturalist in the expedition, depicting an Amazona Aestiva parrot. Beneath the drawing, the prince’s notes describe his own Brazilian pet’s ability to respond to questions, narrating a casual conversation between himself and the animal. In Brazil, this parrot is known as the “Papagaio-Verdadeiro,” or “truthful parrot.” Though typically seen as a mere imitator of the human voice, the parrot in the film becomes a narrator and history recorder. This mimicry ability mirrors the Dutch settlers’ own attempts to replicate nature through botanical illustrations, prompting questions about the authenticity of both the early Dutch documentarians and the bird’s voice.
As Far As The World Reaches, originally expressing the optimistic promises of economic growth during the Dutch Golden Age, in the film, emphasizes how colonial enterprises not only stretched the world’s boundaries over centuries, but also pushed the planet to its own ecological limits.
Screenings:
— Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand (FR)
— It's All True International Documentary Festival, São Paulo (BR)
— Concorto Film Festival, Pontenure (IT)
— Kinoforum International Short Film Festival, São Paulo (BR)
— Science New Wave Festival, New York (US)
— Sinédoque Short Documentary Festival, Rio de Janeiro (BR)
A film by Daniel Frota de Abreu
With:
Ron Bernstein, Mariana de Campos Françozo,
Tinde van Andel, Luiza Lemmertz, Frank Loggen,
Godard Tweehuysen, Olof Ryding, Alvaro Ugarte
Cinematography:
Emiel Chung
Editing:
Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Sound designer and sound mix:
Sébastien Lheureux
Original music:
Onça Monstra
Voice over:
Luiza Lemmertz
Production assistant:
Kevin Reynaert
Cinematography assistant:
Ymeja Klopman
Color grading:
Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Additional camera and production:
Daniel Frota de Abreu
With support of:
Jan van Eyck Academie
Het Nieuwe Instituut
Jester
