WORLD PREMIERE MARCH 22, 2025 IN COPENHAGEN

SYNOPSIS
In OBSERVER, filmmaker Ian Cheney embarks on an experiment in which he brings a series of keen-eyed observers - scientists, artists, a hunter - to a range of locations around the world, often without telling them where they are going, and asks them simply to describe what they see.
What unfolds is a deep exploration and celebration of the power of observation: what happens when you find new ways to sense and perceive the world around you? With customary whimsy and a small painted red square that Cheney brings on every journey, the film is an invitation to viewers to find beauty and meaning in even the most quotidian of locales.
Director Bio
Ian Cheney received bachelor’s & master’s degrees from Yale and an MFA in filmmaking from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His twelve feature-length films prior to Observer (2025) include King Corn (2007), The City Dark (2010), The Search for General Tso (2014), The Most Unknown (2018), Picture a Scientist (2020), The Arc of Oblivion (2023), and Shelf Life (2024). He has helmed Wicked Delicate Films since 2003. A former MacDowell Fellow & Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, he has taught at Yale College and the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy but is really not a very focused teacher. He lives in Maine.
Production CREDITS
CREDITS
The Wonder Collaborative Presents
A Wicked Delicate Production
Produced by Meredith Desalazar, Rebecca Taylor, Manette Pottle
Director of Photography Ezra Wolfinger
Sound Recordist Tom Eichler
Edited by Sam Peisner and Ian Cheney
Music by Ben Fries and Simon Beins
Executive Producers Sarah Goodwin, Elliot Kirschner, Katy Chevigny
Written and Directed by Ian Cheney
Key Cast
David George Haskell
Marcia Bjornerud
Manu Prakash
Valeria Souza
Luis Eguiarte
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Jan Cortsen
Jacques Pienaar
Dallas Hudson
Juan Pablo Culasso
Sara Colmenares
Idrissa Ndiaye
Sira Doumbia
Mansour Seck
Chad Benner
SHOOTING LOCATIONS BY COUNTRY
USA
Greenland
Italy
Senegal
Chile
Korea