Know Your Mushrooms (DVD)
APPROX. 73 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2008 - MPA RATING: NR
" Alien mushrooms save the planet!
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Alien mushrooms save the planet! At least they could, according to mycological guru Gary Lincoff who is on a mission to educate the world about the seemingly infinite uses of the seemingly infinite variety of mushrooms that span the globe in a massive fungal network.
Director Ron Mann, best known for his indispensable "Comic Book Confidential" (1988), brings his camera to the annual telluride Mushroom Festival where fungophiles celebrate the glory of one of the planet´s most overlooked natural resources. The festival features lectures, parades, picnics, and certain Rocky Mountain high medicinal celebrations. Mann´s intentionally rough handheld camera work is suitably trippy for said medicinal purposes.
For many people, there´s something inherently creepy about these dead-alive, not there one day, growing out of control beasties that either grill up real good or kill you on the spot, but Lincoff and his fellow enthusiasts build a good portion of their lives around them. Mushroom hunter Larry Evans (that´s him on the DVD cover) follows the rainy season from Alaska down to Mexico and probably points beyond in the quest for rare mushrooms. Like Lincoff, his face lights up every time he talks about his fungal obsession and his summation is succinct: "It´s a good life!"
Lincoff, the star lecturer at the festival and on the national (global?) myco-circuit, speaks with a zest that borders on messianic fervor about the extraordinary properties of mushrooms. They can cure disease, clean up oil spills, and connect us to other spiritual worlds though they have yet to offer a realistic plan for success in Afghanistan. But for the sake of morels everywhere, don´t buy mushrooms from the supermarket. They´re junk and you´re just supporting the mushroom industry´s conspiracy to suppress the truth about these miracles of nature.
Mann doesn´t question Lincoff or any of his other subjects, preferring to give them the stage and let them share their passion. It´s infectious even if you are credulous about some of their more grandiose claims. Mann also uses animated inserts to share facts about mushrooms. Did you know that the world´s largest living organism is a honey mushroom in the Blue Mountains of Oregon that´s at 3.4 square miles and growing? I thought that honor belonged to a coral reef somewhere, but perhaps it´s a matter of semantics.
