ThoughtGallery.org > Film Screening & Director’s Q&A—”Forest for the Trees”

Film Screening & Director’s Q&A—”Forest for the Trees”

Visit during Late Night ICP for a special screening of the film Forest for the Trees, followed by a Director’s Q&A with ICP alum Rita Leistner.

This visually compelling documentary depicts a diverse community of tree planters who find common cause, self-knowledge, and meaning in their arduous, solitary work toiling to restore Canada’s forests. Deftly weaving together still photos and film footage, director and cinematographer Rita Leistner movingly captures the unexpected contradictions in the tree planters’ experiences—the hardship and the healing; the solitude and the joy of belonging—creating an eloquent cinematic metaphor for the human condition.

Rita Leistner is a multi-award-winning Canadian photographer, writer and filmmaker. She is known for intrepid work in conflict zones (Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Lebanon), her ability to build close personal bonds with her subjects, and for creating unique approaches to the wide variety of socially and environmentally engaged subjects she documents. The merging of subject and landscape is her specialty. She was a finalist for a 2022 Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography in a Feature-Length Documentary for Forest for the Trees— a five-year multi-media project that includes a photobook of the same title—and her acclaimed photographic series The Tree Planters and Enchanted Forests, which are in major public art collections including The National Gallery of Canada. An alumna of the School of the International Center of Photography in New York (2000), Rita is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto and lives in Montreal.











When: Thu., Apr. 6, 2023 at 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Where: International Center of Photography (ICP)
79 Essex St.
212-857-0000
Price: Free w/ $5 Admission
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Visit during Late Night ICP for a special screening of the film Forest for the Trees, followed by a Director’s Q&A with ICP alum Rita Leistner.

This visually compelling documentary depicts a diverse community of tree planters who find common cause, self-knowledge, and meaning in their arduous, solitary work toiling to restore Canada’s forests. Deftly weaving together still photos and film footage, director and cinematographer Rita Leistner movingly captures the unexpected contradictions in the tree planters’ experiences—the hardship and the healing; the solitude and the joy of belonging—creating an eloquent cinematic metaphor for the human condition.

Rita Leistner is a multi-award-winning Canadian photographer, writer and filmmaker. She is known for intrepid work in conflict zones (Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Lebanon), her ability to build close personal bonds with her subjects, and for creating unique approaches to the wide variety of socially and environmentally engaged subjects she documents. The merging of subject and landscape is her specialty. She was a finalist for a 2022 Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography in a Feature-Length Documentary for Forest for the Trees— a five-year multi-media project that includes a photobook of the same title—and her acclaimed photographic series The Tree Planters and Enchanted Forests, which are in major public art collections including The National Gallery of Canada. An alumna of the School of the International Center of Photography in New York (2000), Rita is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto and lives in Montreal.

Buy tickets/get more info now