Colonies open up conundrums on how we live and interact closely with each other, and paradoxically, these structures that not only unite but separate us. In the microscopic kingdom, the functionally specialized bodies that assemble for capturing prey, feeding or reproduction, ultimately for mere survival in a larger combative world. As we turn to humanity, the term applies to groups of people with common qualities or interests located in close association. And yet colonies only complicate themselves as they implicate not only people but territories, where land belongs to or under the control of a nation.
Away from intensive agriculture and sheltered from the effects of climate change, our cities may be the refuges that bees and other insect pollinators need to survive. Flitting from plant to plant, from flower to flower, bees and other insect pollinators play an essential role in crop pollination an
Amber is renowned for its beautiful preservation and arguably the most valuable scientific collection lives in the American Natural History Museum. Dr David Grimaldi and Paul Nascimbene share their passion for amber in this film, which looks at the millions of years old specimens inside as well as t
A researcher falls in love with a microscopic girl in his petri dish.
THE COLONY is a story about sisterhood and the evolution of communication in two of the most social creatures on earth: humans and ants. In this film of a live performance, Mona struggles to reconnect with her estranged sister Hennie, and she turns to the ant colony for inspiration. With more than 5
aDiatomea is an artificial life system that uses various methods and notions of a-life research. The basic principle of aDiatomea is that every aspect of it is entirely mathematically generated and thus it is not created purposefully as an art piece but as a complex system that takes a life of its o
Two immigrants recount the changes brought about by their journeys to the U.S., paralleling that of cells migrating in response to a wound. ISFF13 Symbiosis
Follow the journey of one honey company in the UAE, as they struggle to keep their bees alive.
Aquí y allá is an essay film that studies what being at home means. The filmmaker uses photographs, maps and Google Earth to connect places around the globe; not just from her own past, but also from the complex migratory history of her family that stretches back to Hitler-era Germany
An immigrant in New York tries to become a Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) bird, so that she can travel back to the Caribbean for her child's birthday party.
Foreign bodies was created using video light painting and modern medical imaging (CT, MRI, cryosection), generating a mythical landscape of transparent bodies, and instilling a sense of strangeness that our own bodies can sometimes inspire.
In this animated short, a self-important colonial explorer emerges from a sailing ship and plants a flag on the Arctic ice, as a bemused Inuit hunter looks on. Then the explorer plants another, and another, and another, while the hunter, clearly not impressed that his land has been "discovered," qui
The intriguing story of a mysterious homeless eccentric called Kmêdeus (EatGod) who lived on the island of São Vicente, Cabo Verde. To some he was a lunatic, to others an artist. But to all, he was and still is a mystery. António Tavares, an important contemporary dancer from Cab
A science-fiction story set in an indistinct coastal region, between land and sea, above and below water. El Captain disappears, one of his disciples takes a journey in the ocean to cut off the internet cable, the water level is rising, an amphibian woman appears at the shore looking for her mother,
In PLANET ∑, giant creatures are trapped inside the ice. Submarine explosions provoke a global warming, and a new life begins for animals. This is the third piece from the PLANET series, after PLANET A (Locarno 2008) and PLANET Z (Berlinale 2011).
This film takes a trip into the words, phrases, sounds, scraps, images, moments, struggles, jokes, histories that are woven into a visual fantasia of a nation, which speaks in many tongues but dreams in one. 'English' has an intimate connection with the history of the Indian sub-continent. Imposed b
Macro, micro, natural, artificial, inside, outside. Invasion is an investigation into the lives of pathogens, bacteria, parasites and other creatures, but not in the way you'd expect. From the air to the lab, we are brought into a world that is claustrophobic and at times frightening. Who is being l
In 1960s Lebanon, Manoug Manougian leads a group of scientists, students and army experts to develop a space program for their country.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the french-israeli artist Absalon conceived a "life project" that was radically different from one's usual aspirations for a better life. To get his project underway he built six small Cells, six individual houses destined for world's big cities: Paris, Zurich, New Yor
A whimsical take of what happens when one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of the other (the host).
We Rule is from "The Leafcutters" series – a project that includes video, photography, drawing and sculpture. It was filmed at Liquid Jungle Lab, a biological research station on Isla Canales de Tierra off the Pacific coast of Panama. The soundtrack was created from wildlife recorded on locati
Orfeo Nel Canale Alimentare (Orpheus in the Alimentary Canal) is an animated opera about the digestive tract. In the film, Orpheus attempts to rescue Eurydice from a bout of indigestion by crossing the river of her inner-under world. But in the alimentary canal there are no heroes, only the multitud