Experience the fusion of dance, cinematography, and music in an optimistic narrative about humanity's evolving connection with nature.

This visually rich 50-minute film invites viewers to witness Earth's creation journey from when it was just a sparkle in our creator's eye to our present and future. Originally created for live performances to accompany Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth, written in the style of Gustav Holst's The Planets, we adapted it into a feature film when the pandemic forced the cancellation of most live performances.

The resulting film, called Cine-Symphony Planet Earth, was awarded Best Feature Film by the Environmental Film & Screenplay Festival. It also received laurels from the prestigious Woodstock Film Festival and the Ridgewood Guild International Film Festival. It will soon be available on the classical music streaming platform Stingray Classica in North America, Europe and Asia. The film without recorded music is also still available for live orchestra and choir performances.

The story:

The film opens with Gaia (the beautiful Mikayla Scaife) dreaming of a planet unlike any other – valleys of greenness with life crawling and creeping from every crevice, filling its water and sky. Earth was a sparkle in the goddess' eye. By harnessing cosmic forces, she creates our future earth.

Satisfied and exhausted, Gaia falls into a deep sleep at the end of the first movement. However, calamity strikes as meteors pummel the earth. Gaia wakes up to find the earth a smoking, cratered hellscape. She fixes what she can, but unfortunately, the dinosaurs are lost. Plants eventually return, and the birds and sea creatures evolve. In what may be a dubious decision on her part, monkeys become Homo Sapiens. Animals live with the early humans in harmony and are reflected and revered in art. With a gigantic yawn, Gaia takes another eon-long nap. Big mistake.

Midway through the second movement, the lush music turns minimalistic with a quickening, near chaotic pulse. Humans arrive, and this rapacious species destroys the planet's paradise, consuming resources that Homer writes we must revere. We blow things up, pour concrete over the homes of furry beautiful creatures, and foul the air and seas with waste and plastic.

Sensing their peril, plant and animal life summon their collective energies in an attempt to wake up Gaia. Baby animals cry, and their parents shriek to save their homes. At the end of the second movement, Gaia rises to realize the destruction.

In the third movement, Gaia deploys furious energy to rectify the wrong. Solar arrays are built, wind farms churn, and with human coaxing, some animals make it back from the brink. Humans employ massive computing power to find earth-reviving solutions. Forests recover, and regenerative farming rids the food supply of toxic chemicals. The moon is colonized.

As the choir sings Homer’s poem, the music builds to a spectacular finale. We realize that Gaia is us. There is hope.

Viewer Comments:

“Wow. I am completely floored by this. The music is beautiful, stunning and majestic. It’s spectacular. Thank you for making this.”

“A surreal experience... It felt just as grand as the universe that it was conveying.”

“A cool immersive audio-visual experience where you can sit and appreciate planet earth and all its glory…Captivating.”

“A very clever way to tell the history of the natural world…with a beacon of hope at the end.”

“A mixture of Fantasia and The Planet Earth series on Disney.”

 Producer’s Notes

Dyan Machan, Executive Producer

Johan de Meij's masterpiece, Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth, begins with a powerful introduction that propels listeners into the cosmos and the sonic chaos of the Earth's creation. The interstellar noise eventually gives way to a solemn tribute to the planet, evoking images of vast landscapes teeming with bird flocks, undulating meadow grass, and the sun rising above water. De Meij wrote the symphony as a sequel to Gustav Holst's The Planets, which had overlooked Earth in its exploration of our solar system. Using the same instrumentation and female choir, De Meij picks up where Holst left off. In the final movement, the choir sings "A Hymn to Gaia," or Mother Earth, in the original Greek as written by Homer (770 BCE). One verse reads, "She feeds all creatures in the world," reminding us of a message from 3,000 years ago to protect our planet. It seems prophetic. But it seems unlikely that Homer, who scholars believe may be multiple people, came from a future generation that mastered time travel. Still, using this verse in Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth was nothing short of brilliant and it has been a crowd-pleaser since its debut in 2006. It has been performed hundreds of times under the baton of numerous conductors on five continents.

As the audience grew, the question arose: what if this majestic score had a film that could enhance its naturally theatrical qualities? What if a film could be as dazzling and visually stunning as Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth's music and also carry the weight of a message that can't be communicated enough: let's work together to restore and protect our planet. And what if such a film could be made available for free to community music groups worldwide to help them draw bigger audiences? That was the concept, the big idea that resonated so loudly I could no longer ignore it.

The firm debuted in Naters, Switzerland. The two performances by the 70-member Oberwalliser Blasorchester and Oberwalliser Vocal Ensemble were sold out. Many audience members came back to see it a second time. Next came Italy, Germany, France.