TREEFATHER
an ode to a yew tree
a film, a book, a poem
by Graham Roos
THE FILM
A 24-minute cine-poem about an ancient yew tree and the deep time of living things, with original music by Ray Kohn.
I first heard about the ancient yew while making my earlier documentary, Ashby’s Odyssey. During COVID, when I returned to Sheffield to care for my terminally ill mother, I sought the tree out — already with the idea that it might become a film — and began a relationship with it that would continue over several years
THE TREE
This ancient yew has stood for more than two thousand years.
It is a witness, a shelter, a presence.
Treefather is a meditation on relationship, time and the more-than-human — and on what it might mean to truly encounter another living being.
“You can only speak to trees when your words have lost the power to wound.”
GRAHAM ROOS - TREEFATHER
IMAGES
a small selection from the seasons
LIVE
Treefather can be experienced live:
with Graham Roos reading the poem
and live violin.
For screenings, festivals and galleries
and special events
THE BOOK
A photographic journey through the seasons of the ancient yew.
The companion book to the film
ABOUT GRAHAM ROOS
Poet - writer - filmmaker
Graham Roos is a British writer, poet, filmmaker and performer whose work moves between poetry, film, music and the mythic imagination.
His films include Ashby’s Odyssey, Lady of the Bluebells and The Jews of Rome, while his poetry and performance work has developed through collaborations with musicians, composers and visual artists. Across these different forms, his work returns to questions of myth, memory, place and our relationship with the more-than-human world.
Treefather brings these strands together in a cine-poem created through an extended encounter with an ancient yew on the edge of Sheffield and the Peak District.