The origins of the project
Narrated by Pascale Smeesters, the director
At the beginning, two observations
An anthropocentric ecology
The series “In the Name of Nature” arose from two observations: all too often, environmental discourse assigns nature a purely instrumental value, thereby adopting the same narrative as the capitalist society that is destroying it. Nature is viewed as a resource necessary for our survival: this is supposedly the main reason to preserve it. But how can we possibly imagine emerging from this crisis while clinging to the same anthropocentric worldview? To me, this represents a glaring contradiction.
A catastrophist ecology
The second observation is this: no one wants to hear the science-based environmentalist argument anymore—the one that lays out the current and future disasters threatening the long-term survival of our species. We cover our eyes and cling to sweet illusions, because reality is too ugly to bear. And the longer we wait, the worse the situation gets, the more disillusioned we become, and the more we ask ourselves, “What’s the point?” Motivation crumbles, eco-anxiety takes hold, and the far right gains ground.
My inspirations
Philosophy
While studying philosophy and the ethics of public policy at UCL—and more specifically while writing my thesis—I had the opportunity to discover a branch of philosophy that is little known in the French-speaking world: environmental ethics. This field challenges our conception of the world and the relationship between humans and nature. What if we stopped seeing ourselves as superior to the rest of the living and non-living world? What if we included nature in our moral framework? Unfortunately, philosophy in Belgium today is too often confined to the academic world. It’s seen as too abstract, distant, almost aloof. I wanted to bring it back down to earth, to make it tangible, to make it accessible to everyone. Because I’m convinced that philosophy has a lot to offer ecology.
The project of The Nomadic Philosophers was born.
Anthropology
Anthropology—that is, the discovery and study of different ways of thinking and living in other cultures—has also always fascinated me. During my studies, I went on volunteer projects to immerse myself in Benin and then in Mongolia, in search of ways of seeing the world that differed from the hackneyed Western perspective. I was eager to go further.
Beauty
Finally, nature photography and videography have always been a passion of mine. As someone who loves nature, I am even more captivated by its fragile and fleeting beauty, which I love to capture and share.
Beauty will save the world.
The Project: A Mosaic of Environmental Motivations
All these observations, passions, and life experiences led me to come up with this crazy idea: What if I traveled around the world to produce a series of documentaries on various positive and inspiring reasons to protect nature, drawing inspiration from different cultures and philosophies that go beyond anthropocentrism? It wasn’t too hard to persuade my husband—also a philosopher by training and a lover of travel and nature—to join me on this adventure.
The idea behind the series was to reflect the diversity of positive motivations that can drive us to preserve or respect nature, much like the different colors in a large stained-glass window. Some of these motivations may align with the prevailing imaginary, while others may completely overturn it. Some may be rooted in cultural beliefs, while others may touch on universal themes.
Not everyone may be moved by all of these motivations, and some might even put you off completely. But I hope that, among this diversity, everyone will be able to find a little spark that warms their heart and inspires them to take action.
True to the spirit of philosophy and lifelong learning, every motivation is analyzed, examined, and challenged with the critical thinking essential to the art of nuance. Nor do I claim to be neutral: as you watch the series, you will quickly understand that moving beyond anthropocentrism is, for me, a priority.
An investigation across the world
The itinary
To create this series, we had to decide which places we would visit and which people we would interview over the course of a year. The countries were chosen for their natural and photographic potential (Iceland and Patagonia, for example), for their cultural distinctiveness (Japan and Chile), for their environmental policies (Costa Rica), or simply because they were home to people we absolutely wanted to interview (the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and France).
And ultimately, we found in each country much more than we had come looking for. While some meetings were already on our agenda from the start—such as our stay with John Baird Callicott, a major figure in environmental ethics and the subject of my philosophy thesis—other encounters happened organically in the field, arising from our journeys and reflections along the way.
Une rencontre mémorable avec Callicott !
Natures and cultures
For a year seemingly outside of time, we took the time to immerse ourselves in the natures and cultures we traversed. The goal was not to "see or do as much as possible," but rather to take the time to understand each country's relationship with nature. The encounters we had there, the natures we perceived with our five senses, will remain deeply etched in our memory for a long time. The wind in Patagonia, the torrential rains in Costa Rica, the magical atmosphere around the Shinto shrines, the sensation of having landed on the Moon in Iceland—I attempted to convey these experiences in the documentary series, as they shape the worldviews of these diverse places.
All these anthropological reflections and lived experiences have been transcribed into the book Natures, which also features our finest photographs from this world tour.
These photos and reflections also served as the basis for an exhibition, A World of Natures and a conference titled Faces of Nature, both deeply connected to the documentary series.
The Scale of Colonialism
If there’s one thing that struck us during this trip, it’s the impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples. The genocide of Native Americans in the United States, the ostracization of the Ainu in Japan, the violence against the Kichwa people and so many others in Ecuador—and the list goes on. I wanted to highlight these glaring injustices in my series as much as possible. Often, these Indigenous peoples had a different relationship with nature than the colonizers did. My goal is not to fall into the trap of exoticism, which would involve thinking that everything outside our Western culture is necessarily fantastic. But studying these other relationships with nature allows us to open up new horizons and discover new ways of thinking.
To choose is to give something up
To edit the series, I had to make some choices. I had accumulated hundreds of hours of interviews, and the series had to remain easy to follow. So I had to make the painful decision not to include some of the people we had interviewed. However, the full accounts of all our interviews can be found on our travel blog. There you’ll also find travel stories from our epic journey, photos, and thoughts captured on the fly.
Contradictions we must face
Our carbon footprint
It’s clear that by taking this trip, we’ve skyrocketed our carbon footprint. Isn’t there a fundamental contradiction here? Our anthropological approach led us to explore other continents. Having chosen to take the time to explore each country in depth, and facing constraints in terms of travel duration and budget, we consequently had to fly many times, even though once we arrived, we used public transportation (buses, trains, etc.) as much as possible. Since then—over the past 10 years—we have not flown again. We also strive to make the most of the substantial amount of photo and video footage we accumulated during that trip, turning it into educational tools that encourage as many people as possible to adopt eco-responsible behavior. Furthermore, the fact that we were a very small film crew means that our series has a much smaller carbon footprint than most professional films, which require a large crew and a lot of equipment to transport. Finally, for this website, we’ve chosen to offer the films for download rather than streaming. This way, you can watch the downloaded film as many times as you like without using up bandwidth each time.
The feminist issue
I was already a feminist in 2016, but I’m even more so in 2026. And it’s clear that today, I would probably have chosen different speakers than I did in 2016. Fighting patriarchy—like fighting any system of domination—requires effort and clear-eyed thinking. The academic world, the religious world, and the scientific world are often male-dominated. I thus realized with dismay that my episode on the sacred featured only male guests. Not a single woman. We never deliberately chose this; we simply went from one well-known figure to the next based on recommendations (and to be thorough, we also received a refusal from Orthodox nuns). In hindsight, this saddens me. But perhaps it also reveals the place of women in the religious world. Fortunately, this isn’t the case for all episodes. I’ll do better next time—I promise!
Self-production: Between Freedom and Solitude
It took nine years to complete the series. Why did it take so long? Because I chose to self-produce it.
So I took on, one after another, the roles of camerawoman, sound technician, interviewer, extra, screenwriter, director, editor, voice-over artist, producer, broadcaster, and moderator of film discussions—and the list goes on. I did all of this in my free time, mostly using my own money, supplemented by funds raised through a crowdfunding campaign before the trip. My husband also helped me a lot, taking on equally varied roles over the course of the months.
The advantage of self-production is freedom. The disadvantage is loneliness.
As the years went by, I went through periods of doubt. Hadn’t those images become obsolete? Hadn’t environmentalism fallen by the wayside? Didn’t philosophy scare the majority of ordinary people?
Today, I am happy to have been able to overcome those doubts and present this series to you, whose theme I am convinced is timeless.
Acknowledgments
In closing, I’d just like to thank… so many people, in fact, that I’m afraid I’ll forget someone!
My professors at UCLouvain, who wrote letters of recommendation that allowed us to interview the greatest philosophers,
everyone who participated in the crowdfunding campaign,
all the people we interviewed during our trip (about seventy!),
all the people who hosted us, helped us, or served as our guides or interpreters during our journey,
Jacques Dochamps and WIP for allowing me to share images from his film,
everyone who has supported me and believed in this project, starting with my family and friends,
everyone who helped me promote this project through film screenings and discussions, exhibitions, and testimonials,
everyone who has already attended the film discussions,
of course, my husband, without whom none of this would have been possible,
my daughter, for the strength she gives me,
and finally, YOU, dear reader, because if you've made it to the end of this page, it means you're just as passionate as I am!