18 September 2025 | Morning Star, Andy Hedgecock

★★★★

“THE bigger issues, of course, are around who controls media, who controls power,” says Heather Ackroyd in a frank reflection on the impact of her art and activism.  

Fiona Cunningham-Reid’s truthful and multilayered documentary celebrates Ackroyd’s 35-year artistic collaboration with Dan Harvey and chronicles the collapse of their personal relationship.

It also explores the revolutionary potential of visual art. Footage of the artists’ attention-grabbing work with Extinction Rebellion is accompanied by commentary from fellow climate campaigners. Harvey discusses the difficulty of balancing integrity against financial security and reveals he and Ackroyd have declined work from BMW and Monsanto.

We see the detailed planning, complex processes and hard work of bringing visionary ideas to fruition. Some of the artworks are ephemeral and few will outlive their creators. There’s a crystal encrusted whale skeleton; a model in a grass coat, riding a white horse in Tate Modern’s Turbine Room; and living grass portraits of environmental activists – photography meets photosynthesis.

The connection between these disparate elements is enhanced by Richard Durrant’s fine guitar- and cello-based score and Catherine Arend’s deft editing. The opening sequence is a fascinating montage of Ackroyd & Harvey’s fusions of activism, biology and ecology. It begins with an apparent aerial view of a furrowed field which — after cutting from close-up to long shot — turns out to be a pair of trompe l’oeil curtains, gigantic and fashioned in grass.  

Enlightening and imaginative, the film highlights the graft, craft, context and wonder of Ackroyd & Harvey’s work. Highly recommended.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/film-round-september-18-2025