Know your Mushrooms
In Know your Mushrooms Ron Mann investigates the miraculous, near-secret world of fungi. Visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi.
The oldest and largest living organisms recorded on Earth are both fungi. And their use by a new, maverick breed of scientists and thinkers has proven vital in the cleansing of sites despoiled by toxins and as a “clean” pesticide, among many other environmentally friendly applications.
Combining material filmed at the Telluride Mushroom Fest with animation and archival footage, along with a neo-psychedelic soundtrack by The Flaming Lips, this film opens the doors to perception, taking the audience on an extraordinary trip.
Watch the full documentary now (Please read FAQ No.10 before watching)
Really good doc.
Except sound kept cutting in and out. sound cut right off about 50:
so could not watch all.
Somewhat entertaining, I guess?
Basically is centered around a little mushroom festival in Colorado while it follows a few weird people who have very strong emotions about the importance of fungus. Seemed to be filled with lots of fluff footage and not a whole lot of information. Also contains surprisingly little information about psychedelic mushrooms. In the end, you will certainly not know how to “Know your Mushrooms” after watching this, or even begin to have an idea how to.
This is a great documentary for a Mushroom 101.
It is certainly NOT a David Attenborough-like film,
so dont expect to be able to go out to the forest,
identify and pick up a Psilocybin mushroom and travel the universe.
While childish at some times with the animations,
it has some golden moments that will encourage you
to investigate further.
I found mind blowing what Terence McKenna explained in his
theory of “The Stoned Ape” origin of human consciousness
or the postulation of fungi as being the precursor of life
on earth.
The biological importance of fungi within the ecosystem is also pointed out during the film,
as is the “alienation” we westerners feel towards mushrooms
and how we are educated since childhood to avoid them.
The medical advantages (as shown in the film) are astonishing.
And their value within the ecosystem is second to none,
every gardener should include them in the lower layer of their “forest”.
All in all,
nice movie that will take you to look for further info on the subject
Very entertaining! I didn’t think I’d particularly like this one but I did. However, I would have liked to see more specific information on how to identify good mushrooms from poisonous ones.
Fun little documentary, the graphics are a bit childish yet deal with subjects inappropriate to a school setting (the Ron Jeremy/porn star reference, among many). As a dedicated wild mushroom picker here in Oregon, the film is “preaching to the choir”, I love chantrelles, morels, boletes, shaggy manes, lobsters, hedgehogs, black trumpets, puffballs, oysters…and I’m sure I’m leaving some of the local ones out. My Blue Mountains morel lasagna in a dutch oven on a springtime picking trip is magical. One glaring omission was the lack of even mention of Paul Staments, the enthroned Elvis of the mycology world.
hello everyone, does someone can spell the type of fungus that talk about when at the final they are eating at chinese restaurant, he mention two types of fungus, can someone can help me to spell those fungus (for further research), i suffer from nasal probrem, and my mom suffer from diabetes so i guess it will be useful to find those type of fungus….thanks for your help
The doc is interesting. They talked about most important features and qualities of fingi, I liked the remark at the end that from 1200 pages in modern biology teaching, only 20 are about fungi which is a shame.
It’s entertaining, and the music from David Gilmour was a special highlight. But it does seem to glorify some possibly questionable expirimentaion.
Experimentation is the bomb plato. How do you think the first Plato got his crazy ideas? Psychedelic varieties of mushrooms were consumed in Ancient Greek society you know!
That was really scary about the one that eats insects from inside out & comes out the back of their heads, huh? Yikes! Can they tell the difference between us & bugs, ya think? Gaw, I hope so! :)lol Clue: buy your ‘shrooms at the store! :)
I wish it had actually taught us about the different kinds & what they look like & the ways to be sure. And yet they mention how “Westerners” can’t tell the difference & so don’t gather much of our own mushrooms. Then they didn’t help us out with that much. Well, gee, that’s what we were here for guys.
@ capricious – Thanks for the reference to “know your mushrooms.” Couldn’t find this being streamed but did find it on torrent.
Interesting doc and people featured in the doc.
This is the most disorganized documentary i have ever watched. Takes almost the whole documentary to get the gist of it. Says alot about nothing. And when you think you got the thesis/reason for the documentary, then a cartoon illustrations pop up and confuse anyone watching into thinking it was a documentary about big bird.
If the documentary was about mushroom, then it did show lots of mushrooms but if it was trying to say what to avoid about about mushrooms then, sadly, the documentary leaves one trying to figure it out. A documentary needs to state what it is about and forcefully so. This one does not.
Worth watching, definitely a lot of good information on Fungi, pretty entertaining also!