A documentary by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp.

The word slime is rarely attached to anything good. And when it shows up next to mould, it sounds even worse. But that’s no reason to miss the many delights of The Creeping Garden, a documentary that pulls you down to ground level and makes you feel happy about the 80-minute trip.

Frequently seen, if noticed at all, some kinds of slippery fungi, lichens, and slime moulds are actually single-celled creatures that live together in massed societies of almost infinite variety, in constantly shifting response to changing environments. They survive virtually everywhere in symbiotic rapport with bacteria, plants, and animals. Their human friends include British codirectors Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp, who give us an intimate view of this almost-secret world, which turns out to be both fascinating and startlingly beautiful.

Building a hypnotic flow of psychedelic microscopy and time-lapse imagery, Grabham and Sharp (which sounds like a particularly dangerous law firm) also do real science. That means spending time with various mycologists, microbiologists, and amateur naturalists, all of whom display far more affection for their subjects than you would expect.

Scientists are beginning to find ways to harness, or at least understand, mouldy methods of producing energy and signalling ecological threat. The most intriguing stuff comes from visual artist Heather Barnett and composer Eduardo Reck Miranda, who induce the colourful protozoa to participate in art and, believe it or not, music of persuasive eeriness.

Additional soundtrack efforts from experimental guitarist Jim O’Rourke (formerly of Sonic Youth) underscore the connection with hoary sci-fi movies like The Blob and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This time, however, the slime gets top billing.