For Paul Stamets, it begins and ends with mushrooms. From death, they create life. From fractures, they create connections. And from sickness, they create health.

“Mushrooms represent rebirth. Rejuvenation. Regeneration,” Stamets says.

Fantastic Fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg and edited by Kevin Klauber and Annie Wilkes, follows Stamets’ mission. Using time-lapse photography (stunning), CGI recreations (not as stunning), and a bevy of interviews, Fantastic Fungi makes the case that the answers to disease, anxiety, depression, and global warming might be found underfoot. And they’re tasty to boot.

Fantastic Fungi (2019)
Directed by Louie Schwartzberg
Written by Mark Monroe
Produced by Lyn Davis Lear, Louie Schwartzberg, Elease Lui Stemp
Area 23a, Not rated, Running time 81 minutes, Premiered June 12, 2019 at the Maui Film Festival

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The above blurb first appeared in the pages of Boulder Weekly Vol. 27, No. 5, “Fantastic Fungi.”