Lisa Eder: How a Director is Digitizing the Forest With AR

A documentary that struck a chord: to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bavarian Forest National Park, Passau director Lisa Eder produced the 90-minute documentary “The Wild Forest – Let Nature Be Nature” in 2021. Two years later, she followed this up with an augmented reality app to raise awareness of the topic among new target groups. The film was not only successful in German cinemas, but also generated a positive response at countless film festivals and far beyond the country's borders. And this despite the fact that only a few people have a personal connection to the 6,000 square kilometer area. “Not even everyone in Bavaria knows about the Bavarian Forest National Park,” says Eder.

In her opinion, the fact that “The Wild Forest” has been so successful is due to the way in which it conveys its message. While documentaries about climate change and global warming often describe negative future scenarios, the documentary filmmaker aims to “either portray people who are making a positive difference or show what is beautiful and hopeful”. This is also the aim of her AR application.

Wilderness meets AR: The right format for the topic

Together with Andrea Zimmermann and Rico Reitz, she developed the “WiLDNiS AR” app, which makes it possible to experience the wild forest in a different way. Eder presented the augmented reality app, which also shows scenes from her film, in May 2023 alongside Digital Minister Judith Gerlach and Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber from the Bavarian state government. The app, which runs on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, provides insights into the forest ecosystem - for example, into a woodpecker's breeding den. To do this, the camera is activated in the app. A virtual tree then grows in the room and the user experiences the woodpecker's habitat. A young girl explains the ecological processes in a simple way in a video and complements the AR content.

The app is also used in environmental education. “There are many children who are not lucky enough to be able to experience nature near them,” says Eder. Personal experiences are important to raise awareness of the topic of forest wilderness. Her app is intended to contribute to this, because: “If I know my surroundings and find out that they do something positive for me, I am more likely to support them.” When developing the concept, it was important to Eder not to use augmented reality as an end in itself. She was primarily concerned with finding the right format for younger target groups: “As documentary filmmakers, we can't ignore the fact that we live in the digital age. For me, the challenge was to prepare the content in such a way that it is educationally valuable and the form represents real added value.”

Director wants to devote herself to more multimedia projects

AR gave Eder the opportunity to appeal to different senses. The director believes that experiencing nature through the senses is essential for the topic, “and young audiences in particular will be most affected by climate change.” For her as a documentary filmmaker, the use of AR is also a creative challenge: “With augmented reality and the new digital tools, I am confronted with breaking completely new ground.” Next, she would like to approach a production as a multimedia project from the outset. “I find it exciting to work on an idea where we can cleverly combine the traditional with digital means from the outset and go public with it at the same time.”