In the six-years-in-the-making Genesis, filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou—whose 1996 documentary Microcosmos offered a stunning vision of hidden insect life in an ordinary French meadow—combine state-of-the-art cinematography and holistic wisdom to present an uplifting if occasionally doctrinaire effort to recast common theories about the universe's development as a mythic history lesson. A charismatic narrator (Sotigui Kouyaté) sits in a mud hut and uses elemental props to spin a unifying tale of creation, simply yet elegantly describing the Big Bang, the tumultuous formation of planet Earth, and the emergence of increasingly complex life. While the dulcet-voiced storyteller enchants, Nuridsany and Pérennou unveil awe-inspiring footage of cyclical life and death processes among animals and insects, ranging from the ballet-like mating ritual of graceful seahorses and territorial combat between hefty lizards, to 4-D sonograms that reveal perhaps the clearest images ever seen of unborn young from several species, including—at the top of the evolutionary chain—very active human fetuses. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an image gallery and a trailer gallery. Bottom line: a disappointing extras package for a fine documentary.] (T. Keogh)
Genesis
ThinkFilm, 80 min., G, VHS or DVD: $29.95, Dec. 13 Volume 21, Issue 1
Genesis
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