They Don't Have Voices But You Can Hear Them

It is time we listened to the voices. The voices of those who can’t speak. Director Riccardo Maffioli, in this cute little experimental short, They don’t have voices, but you can hear them speak, finds these voices in the words of Greta Tunberg. In Tunberg’s moving address at the 2018 climate talks in Poland, Maffioli discovers the collective voice of all the plants on our planet, powerless to defend themselves and their home against the human onslaught and man’s mad rush to satisfy his greed.

Set against the hypnotic imagery of trees passing by, as seen through the sunroof of a moving vehicle, Maffioli finds the voices of the trees to be in perfect sync with the emotional speech of Greta, when she says that no one is too small to make a difference. The imagery of trees passing by is punctuated by visuals of birds in flight, probably migrating to places that hold something better for them, reminding us of all good things that are leaving us. She says that dreads to think of a future where we look back with regret that we didn’t do anything to stop this madness when there was still time to act. And, she also says that, if solutions within the system seem impossible, maybe we need to change the system.

They don’t have voices, but you can hear them speak, makes a strong case for the mute trees and plants that make our planet inhabitable. It is a wakeup call that reminds us of our responsibility to reign in those who exploit our resources with no thought whatsoever for the future. Because, anything we use in excess today, is borrowed from our future generations who will pay a bigger price. This is the time to act before it is too late, and no deed is too small to make a difference.