Ahead of our full programme announcement on 6th August, we're delighted to reveal our Opening Night film of LandxSea Film Festival 2025: The Scottish Premiere of Hannah Papacek Harper's debut feature documentary LOST FOR WORDS.
An odyssey across the United Kingdom, Lost for Words celebrates our relationship with nature through diverse voices while actively reshaping our anthropocentric point of view with a poetic and scientific approach.
Using Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris's bestselling book The Lost Words as inspiration, Lost for Words journeys around the UK exploring how communities connect with nature as the vocabulary we use to describe our environment is slowly being erased from our language.
The film tackles climate change, habitat destruction, and species extinction through an empathetic and hope-driven lens that fosters collective action rather than alarm.
Focusing on one local environment rather than global landscapes, it examines humanity's historical relationship with nature, covering themes of land ownership, colonisation, and linguistic imperialism. Central to Hannah's storytelling is the uplifting of underrepresented voices: children, Alzheimer's patients, female researchers, social workers, and diverse artists, addressing nature's accessibility among marginalised groups while inviting viewers to forge new relationships with the natural world.
Hannah Papacek Harper first stumbled across The Lost Words during the pandemic lockdown, finding herself in a period of slow down and contemplating humanity's impact on the world.
Written by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris in 2017, The Lost Words was created after it was noticed by many in the writing community that nature names were disappearing from the Oxford Youth Dictionary. Words like otter, fox, badger, bluebell, fern, and magpie. Fearing that a new generation of children would lose these words forever, the pair created this beautiful illustrated book. The Lost Words quickly became a bestseller and cultural phenomenon, taking root in thousands of British schools and inspiring creative thinkers through its empathetic approach to reconnecting people with nature.
Hannah was one such person, moved to create a film that reflects the spirit and aesthetic of the book through the medium of documentary.
We are pleased to announce that Hannah Papacek Harper will join our opening night screening for an in-person Q&A after the film. Alongside this, visual artist and writer Amanda Thomson, author of Belonging: Natural histories of place, identity and home and contributor to LOST FOR WORDS, will take part in an In Conversation session during the festival.
Look out for our full programme launch on 6th August.