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