Over the past 30 years, Jos de Putter has travelled 850,000 kilometres as a documentary filmmaker, emitting 170,000 kilos of CO2. In The Homecoming, he openly wonders whether his films were important enough to justify such an ecological footprint. Or was it theft after all? To make this film about the eighth commandment (‘Thou shalt not steal’), he decides not to steal from the earth—by not travelling. By using recycled footage, predominantly made by people on the ground, it leaves the smallest possible ecological footprint.

De Putter uses the words of religious philosopher Karen Armstrong about our disrupted relationship with nature to provide a spiritual and theological context to the images from the film. Armstrong thinks we need to change not only our lifestyle but also our faith: we need to see nature as something sacred again. Because the distress signals are too serious to ignore. A Mexican advocate stands up for the forests because she believes that something special lurks in every tree. A Maori sees the river as a living ancestor and Sherpa women clean up rubbish left behind on Everest so as not to displease the mountain gods. De Putter emitted two kilos of CO2 for The Homecoming, or 0.1 tree. ‘I hope to plant that tree in the brain of whoever is watching,’ he said.

THE HOMECOMING is part of a documentary series on the Ten Commandments, produced by DOXY Films and EOdocs, in which ten filmmakers each give their take on one of the Commandments. Jos de Putter ventured into the eighth commandment: ‘Thou shalt not steal.’