This chapter lays the conceptual groundwork for a non-anthropocentric theory of gesture by tracing its evolutionary and aesthetic dimensions across species. Rejecting traditional philosophical accounts that equate animal behavior with mechanical instinct and reserve improvisation for the human, it foregrounds gesture as a mode of embodied expression that traverses the human-animal divide. From Darwin’s continuity thesis to more contemporary thinkers such as Brian Massumi and Vilém Flusser, the chapter develops a broadened notion of gesture as a dynamic, affective, and sense-making force. This expanded understanding underpins a gestural reading of film as a medium capable not only of representing animal life but of partaking in the very gestures it stages. The chapter closes with a preliminary articulation of filmic gesture as a site of relational becoming.