The Flip Side of Paradise

How is your garden related to the Anthropocene? This rather large question is the starting point of the documentary “Paradisets bakside”, now available with both Norwegian and English subtitles on Viten-TV.

By: Linn Therese Nicolaysen Hauan

Published: (Updated: )

Paradisets Bakside
Photo: Tor Karlsen

The documentary is based on research results from Gardening the globe (external link). Through domestic, suburban gardening, it explores the emergence of the Anthropocene as e.g. transnational processes of moving nature, eradication as part of the everyday life in gardens, contemporary gardens as places for consumption of water, soil and fertilizers and gardens as monocultural landscapes.

Watch the full documentary here (external link)

The documentary is produced by Leidar Norway, with Tor Karlsen as the director, photo and co-director Anders Martin Helle, production manager Hilde Holmesland and Mari Finnestad producer.

A peek behind the scenes can be found here (external link)

GARDENING THE GLOBE 

An interdisciplinary environmental humanities research project, based at the University of Bergen, Norway. The project explores the historical processes through which nature has been conquered, controlled and commodified in Scandinavia during the last 250 years.