The Weight of Mountains
Temujin DoranThis is a short film about the processes by which mountains are created and eventually destroyed. It is based upon the work of British geographer L. Dudley Stamp, and was shot in Iceland.
Weather reports, those daily attempts to predict the future, may sometimes appear to be more a form of divination or mythology than an exact science. Climatological data, on the other hand, is all too clear: the rise in average temperatures in parallel with atmospheric carbon, increasingly unstable weather conditions across the globe, melting ice caps, rising sea levels. For our December issue, the end of a tumultuous 2017, we will consider ordinary, exotic, and extreme weather forms (fog, drought, wind, flooding, falling ash, madness, balloons), and the climatological end of the world. Forecasts, here, take many forms, from data gathered over many years on an isolated glacier and detailed surveys of the present earth to speculative dystopias where humanity must contend with climate-induced surplus, hide indoors from killing conditions, or dream of the hospitable Earth as we have it now. Other films suggest that climate shifts and societal collapse may be just part of the anthropological cycle. So enjoy all of this while it lasts: 2018 may be the year to adapt or fade into the geological record for future generations of intelligent sea creatures to interpret when they inherit the Earth from us.
This is a short film about the processes by which mountains are created and eventually destroyed. It is based upon the work of British geographer L. Dudley Stamp, and was shot in Iceland.
Under a microscope tiny shards of ice loom large as glaciers. Using microscopic videography and polarizing lenses, Point of No Return is a visually stunning study of melting ice in real-time. The film provides a micro perspective on climate change, a massive but incremental global event that is usua
The film is about an alien boy, Hugo, who's living on a small, far-away planet. One day he gets his first pet as a present – a real scuba diver taken from Earth. His excitement about the diver knows no limits, and in his childlike selfishness he doesn't realize that he's playing his terrible y
The earth quakes, ashes fall from the sky, and there's this fire that firefighters don't get to extinguish. The villagers decide to take refuge in the forest. Surronded by wild beasts, a new life begins.
Arid soil, sun, wind. A procession crosses the landscape. The echoes of their prayers bring the rain.
This short is a comically cynical vision of a future where the water is gone, all that's left is dust and desperation. Written, Directed & Animated by Greg Sharp Music & Sound Design & Voices by Skillbard - skillbard.com Produced by Nina Knežević
Carlota, as many young people nowadays, does not know what to do with her future. Keep studying? What for... Her uncle Luis fulfills an old promise and invites her to join in his next adventure with the famous archaeologist Eudald Carbonell. Following the milestones marking the pass from the natural
It's 1967, 2015, 2515, 10000 AD. Simon and Garfunkel are travelling through time. Seeking an answer to their growing sadness and anxiety, brought on partly by the slowly overwhelming presence and existential threat of the climate change, they head to the coast, are incarcerated, visit the botanical
"When you are in the thing, and it's the first one, you don't reflect on what it's going to be, you don't think about it until history has played on it…" As Soon As Weather Will Permit reflects upon one person's story within the inimitable confluence of events that led to the dropping of the
Equilibrium is upside down, humanity is exhausted, and people are willing to sacrifice everything for a dream machine that can show them their future happiness.
In September 1986, the city of Cleveland attempted to set a special record: the simultaneous launch of 1.5 million balloons. But fate intervened, and the result was both crazier and more tragic than anyone could have imagined. More from the Mixtape: go.topic.com/2snbncu
Finite, unique and irreplaceable – fossil fuels are still our most important source of energy. While our demand for oil is always increasing, our supply is limited. The animation Hydrocarbon hones in on the bigger picture of our energy-predicament with a narrative focused on reason and simplic
Lembusura, or the legend of the mountain demon. A rain of ash falls on Java. Kelud, a volcano located to this east of the Indonesian island, is active. As one of the island's most dangerous mountains, it is known for violent and explosive eruptions. And when it rains ash, it pours. Time and again, e
The concept of sila —a term that encompasses weather, balance, consciousness—frames a story in the world's northernmost inhabited town of Greenland. Here, a tiny community of Inuit subsistence hunters and a team of polar scientists bear witness, in different ways, to the transforming env
In arid northwestern state of Rajasthan, the areas of Thar desert experience extreme shortage of water. With changing rain fall patterns and declining ground water supply, the impacts of climate change are visible and the need for action urgent. Film produced in collaboration with SEEDS India
At the threshold of human extinction, a small group of disoriented people spend their time in absurd activities inside a house regularly battered by planetary climate change. Within such an unstable situation, and trying to provide a measure of normality, they develop their own strange belief system
Water and oil form the undercurrents of all narrations as they activate profound changes in the planetary ecology. After the oil peak, ever dirtier, remote and deeper layers of fossil resources are being accessed. Aerial recording of the devastated crust in Alberta opens the view into dark lubricant
Fatouh, the guardian of the Mangroves, has not been seen for some time. Some say he left after disputes with local tribes while others claim that it was due to increasing destruction and pollution of these ecosystems in the Arabian Gulf.
The film transports us to a Catalonian fishing village (north of Spain) to discuss the wind with its inhabitants and explore the land's complex geology. The film features a blend of ethereal expositional footage and surrealist imagery, the result of which is part documentary, part surrealist manifes
The Lithuanian scientist Aušra Revutaite has spent 30 years in the Tian Shan mountain range in Central Asia, straddling the borders between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the autonomous Chinese region of Xinjiang. Some 3,500 meters above sea level with only her faithful dog and gray cat for compa
Lebanon has witnessed a number of violent earthquakes as a result of its geographical location on several fault lines. Through an investigation of the country's seismic history, The Disquiet explores the catastrophe in the making.
Willits, an eclectic town two hours north of San Francisco, faces an uncertain future during California's worst drought in 500 years. With just a 100-day supply of water left, cooperation, conservation, and finger pointing all compete in a community made up of ranchers, back-to-the-landers, and mari
A Numbness in the Mouth takes place in an Ireland of the near-future; a self-sustaining, militarized island where climate change has benefited agricultural production. A spokesperson for the government's Ministry of Food- speaking in the Irish language- informs us that due to a record crop yield of
The Inuit learn to observe their environment from childhood. The Elders vividly recall how they discovered nature and wildlife while playfully training their five senses for survival in the Canadian Arctic. Their ancient wisdom is adapting to the current changes surrounding them, as they have learne
India's Sunderbans islands, on the rim of the Bay of Bengal, are threatened by sea level rise caused by global warming. Scientists say the rising water is causing a variety of impacts, including greater erosion—and thus loss of land—and changes in salinity. Among the unexpected impacts o
To wander in fog – how queer! / Solitude is life's own. / No man sees the other near, / Each is alone.' (Hermann Hesse) A station in thick fog, tracks that disappear into white mists and a figure, waiting. In between patches of mist a fox appears, looking for a scent in the wind. And then: blu