In Symbiosis

Aim

Racing Towards the Final Hurdle: Help Us Clear the Archives to Bring In Symbiosis to the World

In Symbiosis is a truly independent feature documentary featuring Vandana Shiva, Dave Goulson, Nora McKeon, Prof. Michael Antoniou and the late Peter Melchett, amongst many others. Equipped with sheer determination, but zero initial external funding and no backing by any individual, studio or distributor, my co-director and I took up loans, continued to work full-time jobs, and with any free time that was left, we persisted for eight years on our path to tell the true story of food and food security.

“Few documentaries dare to take on a series of interrelated subjects and pull all the threads together to make a cohesive whole. In Symbiosis is one of those. It is quite simply a film that should be seen by everyone who cares about life, living and the planet we inhabit.” (Neil Norman, Film Critic, UK)

In Symbiosis had its world premiere at Raindance Film Festival 2025 where it received an Honourable Mention and has since had a very successful festival run, with a recent selection into the 2026 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (see full list of Awards and Selections below).

We are now ready to get our film distributed to the wider public, but are presented with a final hurdle: In order to clear our archive footage for worldwide usage beyond festivals we need to raise £12,000 to uplift our current license. We will be deeply grateful for any contributions to help get our message to the world.

(Read on for more about our journey...)

In Symbiosis - A Deep Dive into Producing Our First Film

It all began with a wish to bring clarity to an ever more confusing food debate, when in 2016 my co-director and I set out to create an unprecedented cinematic documentary that could provide the much-needed answers in the field of human nutrition. Which is the best way to nourish ourselves and how have we ended up in a perpetual cycle of ill-health, food insecurity and ecological destruction, where each proposed diet hails itself as the one to safe humanity? As we entered the rabbit hole to explore far beyond what we had imagined, we came to understand the immense complexities of our globalised food system and its tremendous vulnerability that continues to be exposed time and again. We set out to create a film that will help viewers to recognise the false solutions and that offers a path to true resilience within and around us.

With zero initial external funding and no backing by any organisation, studio, agent or distributor, we took up loans, continued to work full-time jobs and with any free-time that was left, we persisted on our path to tell the true story of food and food security. A handful of angels who recognised our passion and resilience, very generously helped us along the way. Notwithstanding the immense difficulties we encountered, overall, this allowed us to remain independent and therefore, most importantly true to our message.

Our vision and relentless persistence in combination with a deepest wish to give a voice to those whose critical voices are typically drowned out, kept us going for a period of over eight years. Ultimately, it was a concerted effort with the immense support and time provided by each of the highly dedicated individuals on location and in post-production, the most eloquent interviewees and the trust and kindness that we encountered along the way, that brought this unique film to life.

Our dream came true in June of 2025 when In Symbiosis had its world premiere at Raindance Film Festival. Due to our immense financial limitations, we could only afford a festival license for a part of our archival footage at the time. This footage covers historical clips and clips that we were not able to obtain ourselves. We now need to raise £12,000 to uplift our current licence as we are ready to distribute our film to a wider audience.

We will be eternally grateful for any contribution to help our efforts to spread the important messages of our brilliant interviewees to the world.

Gratefully,

Helena & Francesco

In Symbiosis received an Honourable Mention at Raindance 2025, was part of the Official Selection at Leeds International Film Festival 2025, tve Global Sustainability Awards 2025, Cambodia International Film Festival 2026 and won Best Documentary Feature at the International Film Gala 2025, London Director Awards 2026 and Westminster Film Festival 2025 where it was also the winner of the Grand Prix. It is part of the Official Selection at Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2026. Helena was longlisted as Breakthrough Producer at BIFA 2025.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 1st July 2026 at 10:33am