Symbiotic Earth

The innovative ideas of American biologist Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) are explored and celebrated in filmmaker John Feldman’s epic-length documentary that serves as a curious rejoinder to his own 2010 film EVO: Ten Questions Everyone Should Ask About Evolution (VL-7/11), which defended Darwinist (and Neo-Darwinist) thought against proponents of so-called intelligent design. When Feldman sent a copy of EVO to Margulis, she responded with a critique of its embrace of the biological "party line"—what she would call the contemporary "thought collective" that upholds the doctrine of genetic evolution by random mutation that is encapsulated in the notion of the survival of the fittest in the competitive struggle among members of a species. Margulis concluded that the true evolutionary process is based on symbiotic cooperation and sharing from the bacterial level up through the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Again dividing his film into 10 parts, Feldman combines archival footage of Margulis (in the classroom, at conferences, and in direct conversation), interview clips featuring supportive colleagues and former students, and illustrative graphs and scientific films to explain Margulis’s theory. She freely acknowledges predecessors whose work she depended upon, while dismissing the prevailing doctrine of Neo-Darwinism, characterizing it as a natural adjunct of a capitalist mentality. Symbiotic evolution is the primary focus of the documentary, but Feldman also considers its extension to the broader Gaia theory that Margulis formulated with James Lovelock, about how living organisms interact with inorganic elements to maintain a habitable environment on Earth. A fine portrait of a visionary thinker, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)