SUFA and the Sunnyvale Library are excited to announce an exclusive screening of the film Giants Rising: The Secrets and Superpowers of Redwoods. Join us and explore the wonder of the redwoods. This film is only available through private screenings – it is not in theaters or online.
Date: Saturday, June 7, 2025
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Sunnyvale Library, Program Room
Reservations: Reservations are required and can be made through the library. The link will be published at least three weeks before the event.
Synopsis: A journey into the heart of America’s most iconic forests, GIANTS RISING reveals the secrets, superpowers and the saga of the redwoods–the tallest and among the oldest living beings on Earth. Living links to the past, redwood trees hold powers that may play a role in our future, including their ability to withstand fire and capture carbon, to offer clues about longevity, and even to enhance our own well-being.
Through the voices of scientists, artists, Native communities and others, we discover the many connections that sustain these forests and the promise of solutions that will help us ALL rise up to face the challenges that lie ahead.
Movie Trailer: Watch the trailer at giantsrising.com.
Full Summary:
GIANTS RISING tells the epic tale of America’s iconic redwood trees, the tallest and some of the oldest living beings on Earth. Living links to the past, redwoods also hold powers that may play a role in our future, including their ability to withstand fire and capture carbon, to offer clues about longevity, and directly enhance our well-being. How do they do it, and can they keep working their magic even as they’re pushed to their limits?
Transporting viewers into the heart of some of the most remote, awe-inspiring forests, the film paints a cinematic portrait of the redwoods through three lenses: scientific wonder, human connection, and impassioned efforts to preserve these fairytale forests.
Coast redwoods are found only along a 450-mile ribbon of Pacific shoreline stretching from California’s Big Sur to the border of southern Oregon. Their ancestors date back to the time of the dinosaurs, and the oldest living tree we know of has stood watch for nearly 2500 years. The tallest tree measured by scientists rises some 380 feet, and they are known to reach widths of 30 feet across. They are harbors of biodiversity, boasting sprawling canopies where elusive creatures roam. They are conductors of weather and water, living links between land, sea and sky. And coursing through these trees are ancient secrets, millions of years in the making, that we’re just beginning to uncover.
Our relationship with these towering marvels has been dramatic and ever-evolving from the sacred role of redwoods in indigenous cultures, to the logging of 95% of these forests by European settlers, to heroic battles to save the last of the ancient groves. The film is a tapestry of stories, woven through the voices of redwood devotees including a geneticist searching for the source of the trees’ biological superpowers, members of the Yurok Tribe trying to restore connections within their ancestral forests, and a photographer attempting to create a full-scale redwood portrait to display in an urban setting. Throughout the film, commentary from a social psychologist highlights how every foray into these forests is an opportunity to feel better, more connected to each other, and part of something bigger than ourselves.
For more than a century, people have been fighting to recast the value of redwoods from a commodity to an essential provider of services to the environment, and a gift to humanity. Increasingly, we’re tapping these trees not just for lumber, but for their ability to widen our perspectives and help us find peace amidst the stresses of our hectic lives. But whereas the battles of the past were fought to halt logging, the redwood saviors of today are fighting to restore forests that were lost; while contending with new perils wrought by climatic changes that are spurring droughts, wildfires and other extreme conditions that these fragmented forests may not be able to withstand without our help.
The redwoods’ tale offers lessons about resilience, and the promise of solutions that will help us ALL rise up to face challenges that lay ahead.