“Recreating Eden… may be just the tonic needed to survive the last few weeks of early spring deprivation… After four months of bleak, white landscape, the infuse of color is like a drug.”
– Brian Gorman, Tribune Media
Recreating Eden is a multi-award winning international lifestyle/documentary gardening series that challenges us to dig deeper into our motivation for creating a garden. This is not your average “how-to” gardening program. Each episode is a thoughtful and beautiful portrait, exploring why we garden and how the act of creating one can feed your soul.
Over the course of five seasons and 65 episodes, this series introduces us to a wide variety of diverse gardeners, each one with a fascinating story of their own botanical experiments and creations. These enthusiastic, passionate and sometimes eccentric personalities not only take us on a tour of his or her unique earthly paradise but on a fascinating journey into their personal lives as well.
Shot on location in some of the most inspiring and scenic gardens in the world, Recreating Eden has something to inspire any green thumb. From Hawaii to Iceland, Canada to Italy, France to Panama, there is something here for anyone, regardless of how ambitious your own horticultural exploits may be.
Meet the renegade scientists, landscape artists, “horti-sexuals”, renaissance gardeners, rabid lily and orchid enthusiasts, healers, plant hunters and horticultural impresarios that devote their lives to making the world a sweeter, greener place. There is even a real-life Tomato Prince!
Through vivid images of nature and beautiful narration, we are invited to witness how a single plant can elicit memories of the past, is able to heal emotional pain, excite our creative imagination, and most importantly provide us with an example of how the pure beauty of nature can transcend the troubles of our modern world.
“Recreating Eden is the most extraordinary thing. A sumptuous gardening/biography program, it is not just about spectacular gardens around the world. It is also about the lives of the owners.”
– John Doyle, The Globe and Mail
Overview
- Genre: Documentary
- Episodes: 65 episodes
- Seasons: 5
- Running Time: 23 minutes
- Narrator: Bonnie Dickie
Production Team
Merit Motion Pictures
For over 30 years, Merit Motion Pictures (MMP) has worked with Canada’s foremost writers and directors to produce award-winning documentary films and series. During this time, MMP has partnered with BBC, ARTE, ZDF, France TV, Vulcan, CBC, Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic Channel and many others. MMP is a frequent partner for international science and nature co-productions and is fortunate to have access to the highest and most flexible tax credits in Canada. Executive producer and founder, Merit Jensen Carr, is passionate about telling stories which reflect humanity’s relationship with the natural world and has received some of the industry’s top honours including the inaugural HOT DOCS Don Haig Award for Special Achievement in Producing. Recent highlights include the MMP & CAPA/Films A Cinq science and nature co-production, Reef Rescue (ARTE, CBC, NOVA, VULCAN) winner of Best Conservation Film Long Form at the Jackson Wild Media Awards 2020. Merit is currently producing the 2 x 1hr natural history series Kingdom of the Polar Bears (National Geographic Channels, France 3, CBC, Terra Mater, Canal D); Great Lakes (Smithsonian, TVO, Terra Mater); Everest Dark (CBC documentary Channel) and season 4 of Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet (Animal Planet). Other highlights include the Canadian Screen Award-winning films What Plants Talk About (CBC/PBS Nature), Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees nominated at Pariscience and the Canadian Screen Awards for Best Science and Nature Film, Turtle Beach (BBC, ARTE, Blue Ant, CBC) and Polar Bear Town (Smithsonian Channel US, OLN).
Awards & Nominations
- Best Writing in an Information Program or Series (Episode 34: Gardens in the Sky), Gemini Awards, 2007
- Nominee - Best Lifestyle Series (Recreating Eden, Season IV), Gemini Awards, 2007
- Nominee - Best Direction in a Lifestyle Series (Episode 4051: The Lost Pears), Gemini Awards, 2007
- Best Lifestyle Program (Episode 4051: The Lost Pears), Golden Sheaf Awards, 2007
- Cinematography Overall, Non-Fiction (Episode 26: Touched by Luck), Blizzard Awards, 2006
- Best Documentary Series, Golden Sheaf Awards, 2005
- Best Direction in a Lifestyle Program or Series (Ep 2016 - Garden of the Gods), Gemini Awards, 2004
- Nominee - Best Lifestyle/General Interest Series, Gemini Awards, 2004
- Silver Remi - Best Leisure & Recreation - Film & Video Production, WorldFest Houston Awards, 2004
For media inquiries, please contact:
Ophélie Petit | Email: ophelie@meritmotionpictures.com | Tel: +1 (204) 775-4092