As casually unassuming yet expansive as its title suggests, 7 Walks With Mark Brown initially appears to consist of just that, with life partners Pierre Creton (best known for his run of docufiction hybrids that culminated in 2023’s A Prince) and Vincent Barré (who collaborated on these works but is listed as co-director for the first time) following botanist Mark Brown as he searches for indigenous plants along the French coastline before ending at The Dawn of Flowers, his own private botanical project. For just under an hour, these casual expeditions play out in demarcated, chronological order, as Creton’s desaturated digital camera observes the evident pleasure Brown, Barré, and their collaborators take in spotting and recounting the minutest variations of flora that each location possesses, occasionally throwing in a more personal observation, anecdote, or even joke. At various points, co-cinematographer Antoine Pirotte can be seen filming one plant or another with a 16mm camera, but the many digital close-ups on the flowers, often cradled by one or two hands, already carry something of a faded beauty.

If 7 Walks With Mark Brown consisted of just this first section, it would still be a little marvel, awash as it is in a collegial but very quiet atmosphere. But in the ensuing 45 minutes, titled “The Herbarium,” the results of the celluloid component of the shoot are displayed, separated once more into the seven walks. As the astoundingly gorgeous images play out on screen, mostly of flowers but sometimes involving a wider view of the landscape, Brown narrates as he himself sees these images for the first time. In doing so, the film becomes a dual act of memory for both participant and viewer, as the vivid representations conjure up divergent views and experiences of the same event, all bound up in the evident fragility of these living things. In its embrace of the miniature, 7 Walks With Mark Brown encompasses an entire way of viewing the world.