Documenting the human connection to the natural world

Cintia Cabib

As a documentary filmmaker, I am drawn to topics that relate to the natural environment. Several of my documentaries explore the connections people forge with nature through gardening, meditation, artistic creation, and wildlife observation.

In 2007, I became interested in the community gardens throughout Washington, D.C. I set out to learn more about these communal green spaces and to interview and film the diverse group of people who tended their plots. The result was “A Community of Gardeners,” a one-hour documentary which explores the vital role of seven community gardens as sources of fresh food, places of healing, outdoor classrooms, links to immigrants’ native countries, centers of social interaction, and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods. The film also looks back on the history of community gardens in the U.S. and reveals the important role they have played in times of war, economic depression and recession, as well as during periods of heightened environmental awareness.

Jean Paul Dionou tends his plot at the Fort Stevens Community Garden. Photo: Cintia Cabib

During the production of “A Community of Gardeners,” I developed an interest in outdoor spaces that provide people with respite and relaxation. This led to the production of my documentary “Labyrinth Journeys.” The film presents the personal stories of D.C. area residents who use seven unique labyrinths as tools for healing, meditation, stress reduction, and rehabilitation. Unlike a maze, which has many pathways and dead ends, a labyrinth has a single path which leads to the center and back out again. In the film, people of all backgrounds and ages describe their individual journey on the labyrinth and the transformative effect it has had on their lives. A breast cancer survivor, an Iraq War veteran, an individual facing unemployment, a mother caring for her ill son, an office worker seeking a peaceful oasis during the work day, and two high school students dealing with the stresses of school are among the individuals who share their experiences of walking the labyrinth.

As I interviewed people for the documentary and filmed them engaging in this contemplative practice, I was struck by the power of the labyrinth and its healing effects. I was also drawn to the designs of the labyrinths and the different materials used to construct them, such as paving stones, grass, and canvas. I used a variety of camera angles to capture their striking patterns and the movements of the participants as they walked along these pathways.

Cintia Cabib films individuals walking the labyrinth at the American Psychological Association green roof. Photo: John Z. Wetmore

Nature’s beauty is one of the themes featured in my subsequent documentary, “Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell.” The film explores the lives and work of two accomplished but unsung Black women artists who forged careers as artists and educators during the era of segregation and developed a special bond as aunt and niece.

The initial spark for the documentary was a modernist painting I came across which was printed on a historic preservation brochure. The painting, “Third and Rhode Island,” by artist Hilda Wilkinson Brown, depicted a Washington, D.C. neighborhood. My research about the artist led me to Wilkinson Brown’s niece, abstract artist Lilian Thomas Burwell. Wilkinson Brown, who was born in 1894, had died in 1981, but Burwell was a fount of information about her aunt, who had inspired and encouraged her own career as an artist and educator.

Among the artistic works showcased in the film are Burwell’s abstract expressionist paintings, many of which were inspired by her love of gardening, a passion shared by her aunt, Hilda Wilkinson Brown. Burwell says, “I always loved gardening, watching the whole cyclical process of things as they grow and all my work started looking like things that had to do with that unfolding of nature. Everything was an abstraction of something floral, of growing, roses that were opening. Aunt Hilda loved the earth, planting things and seeing them grow. That love of the earth is in my bones, too.” (For more about Lilian Burwell, see the addenda to this article.)

The connection between people and birds is the focus of my latest documentary, “Bird Walk.” The film features the birds and birders that have flocked to RedGate Park in Rockville, Maryland, where more than 160 bird species have been sighted, and follows the grassroots campaign which helped preserve this defunct golf course as a public park and avian oasis.

I learned about this abandoned golf course when a friend got in touch with me and excitedly told me that after the RedGate Golf Course had closed, she and a group of birders had visited the site and identified 120 bird species in just three months. Eager to learn more about this special place, I joined the Montgomery Bird Club for a bird walk. I was amazed that there were so many bird species just 15 minutes from my home. While conducting research for the film, I learned that North American bird populations have declined by 30 percent since 1970. The documentary emphasizes how places like RedGate, with their trees, plants, meadows, and water features, provide critical habitats for birds to thrive and survive.

Lilian Thomas Burwell, Snowbird 11, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48", 1983. Courtesy of the artist

Cintia Cabib at RedGate Park in Rockville, Maryland, where she filmed her latest documentary “Bird Walk.” Photo: Ben Israel

Producing “Bird Walk” was both personally and professionally satisfying. I challenged myself to be a wildlife cinematographer, capturing numerous bird species as they flew, swam, perched, swam, and ate. By becoming more attuned to the sights and sounds of birds, I discovered the joys of birding.

I hope the film inspires kids and adults to take the time to observe and listen to birds, protect our declining bird population, and become citizen scientists who help advance bird conservation research.

Recently, I joined the Metro Washington Association for Blind Athletes for a bird walk at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland. I observed as they listened to the calls and songs of birds and learned how to identify them through the Merlin app developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I am now researching funding opportunities to produce a documentary which will feature several blind and low-vision individuals as they seek accessible activities that bring them closer to nature and the outdoors

Cintia Cabib is an independent producer, cinematographer, and video editor in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. Her documentaries have aired on public television stations nationwide and have been distributed and screened widely in the U.S. and abroad.

Rara avis: a red-winged blackbird sighted at RedGate Park. Photo: Cintia Cabib

Update on Lilian Burwell

View of Highland Beach from the town of Highland Beach website.

On June 7, 2025, Lilian Burwell celebrated her 98th birthday with lively conversation among friends and relatives in her home on her beloved HIghland Beach in Maryland.

Believed to be the first African American seaside resort, Highland Beach is a small residential community, founded in 1893 by Charles Douglass, son of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Here is a poem and another painting (in addition to the one above) that speak to how gardening and natural phenomena evoke "endless wonderment" in Lilian Burwell.

Lilian Thomas Burwell, Daffodil Growing , oil on canvas, 30 1/2 x 40 ⅛”, 1973

Courtesy Berry Campbell Gallery

Metamorphosis

Down under the earth it is peaceful.

The pachysandra over me sifts the hotness of the sun

Into the green warmth that makes my coldness cool instead.

I can see and feel the sun all around me.

In its passage through the leaves and stems

And into the lacy roots around me.

My too tired chrysalis wraps me in rest

While my hope awaits a miracle.

Poem from Lilian Burwell’s book, A Dichotomy of Passions: The Two Masters, published 2008 by Burwell Studios