Sick-Amour

A beautiful and forlorn tree is stuck in the middle of the Rose Bowl parking lot. Ignored and neglected. Hit by cars, and starved for water and oxygen. Attacked by pathogens and pollutants, and it has no chance to reproduce. Joel Tauber, a young and amorous man, is drawn to the tree. Outraged by the indignities that the tree is forced to endure, he devotes himself to improving the tree's life -- watering it with giant water bags, installing tree guards to protect it from cars, building giant earrings to celebrate its beauty, lobbying to remove the asphalt beneath its canopy and to protect it with a ring of boulders, and helping the tree reproduce. To date approximately 200 of these sycamore 'tree babies' have been planted throughout Southern California. Passionately narrated by Tauber and peppered with interviews by experts in a variety of disciplines (environmental philosophy, tree pathology, biology, ecology, urban forestry ), the film is a highly unusual documentary. It examines the tree in a personal and multi-faceted manner, offering it as a microcosm of the plight of urban trees and of forgotten individuals.

• documentary