TREES - Sam Green x UAE National Orchestra

Experience TREES as live cinema where film, storytelling and music unfold together.

What happens when a documentary stops being something you simply watch and becomes something you experience live?

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Green brings TREES to the stage in an immersive live cinema experience where film, storytelling and music come together in real time.

Green narrates live as the UAE National Orchestra performs an original score composed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw.

Co-written with award-winning author and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit, TREES looks at our relationship with the trees around us, the silent witnesses that have stood through generations, histories and the countless moments that shape our world.

Featuring stories from around the globe, alongside appearances from actress Judi Dench, Poet Laureate Ada Limón and leading scientists, the film invites you to slow down and see our place on Earth from a different perspective.

This isn't a documentary you simply sit back and watch. The screen becomes part of a living performance, with Green’s narration and the evolving musical score unfolding around you.

Every performance is a shared moment, created live, experienced together, and gone when the curtain falls.

TREES is Green’s most ambitious film yet, following his acclaimed live documentaries 32 Sounds with JD Samson and A Thousand Thoughts with Kronos Quartet, both previously co-commissioned and presented by The Arts Center.

Come for the cinema. Stay for the feeling of seeing the world, and our place in it, a little differently.

Who's Performing?

• Directed & Performed by Sam Green • Written by Sam Green & Rebecca Solnit • Composed by Caroline Shaw • Music performed by the UAE National Orchestra • Produced by ArKtype & Josh Penn • Cinematography by Yoni Brook • Edited by Gabriel Rhodes • Edited by Gabriel Rhodes

About the Artist

Sam Green (Director, Writer, Editor) Sam Green is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. Green’s most recent live documentaries include A Thousand Thoughts (with the Kronos Quartet) (2018), The Measure of All Things (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with Yo La Tengo) (2012), and Utopia in Four Movements (2010). With all of these works, Green narrates the film in person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. Green’s 2004 feature-length film, The Weather Underground, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award, was included in the Whitney Biennial, and has screened widely around the world. Learn more about Green: https://samgreen.to/ Caroline Shaw (Composer) Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She often works in collaboration with others, as producer, composer, violinist, and vocalist. Caroline is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This year’s projects include the score to Fleishman is in Trouble (FX/Hulu), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), the score to Josephine Decker’s The Sky Is Everywhere (A24/Apple), music for the National Theatre’s production of The Crucible (dir. Lyndsey Turner), Justin Peck’s Partita with NY City Ballet, a new stage work LIFE (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust), the premiere of Microfictions Vol. 3 for NY Philharmonic and Roomful of Teeth, a live orchestral score for Wu Tsang’s silent film Moby Dick co-composed with Andrew Yee, two albums on Nonesuch (Evergreen and The Blue Hour), the score for Helen Simoneau’s dance work Delicate Power, tours of Grav

Event Policies, Terms, and Conditions

• The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for all patrons. • Entry to the NYUAD Campus is through either the East or West Parking or the Welcome Center. • Please note the new campus entry requirements: you must present both your event ticket and the campus access QR code sent by email through NYUAD Campus Safety. • As per current Department of Culture and Tourism guidelines a Green Al Hosn is NO LONGER needed to attend public events in Abu Dhabi. • The wearing of face masks is NO LONGER required in most indoor public places, including campus buildings. • For access and wheelchair bookings, please email: nyuad.boxoffice@nyu.edu

How to get there

By car: Take Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan St/E10, Al Mina, and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed St/E12 to Laffan St. Exit at Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed St/E12. Continue on Laffan Street to your destination. GPS navigation is advised. By public transportation: You can take bus 170 (Al Saadiyat New York< University Via Abu Dhabi) to the Saadiyat New York University 3 bus stop and take a short walk from there. By taxi: You can easily reach your destination via taxi or by using a ride-hailing app. Please note the new campus entry requirements: you must present both your event ticket and the campus access QR code sent by email through NYUAD Campus Safety.