Issue

Forecasts of the End

December 2017

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.

 

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Hydrocarbon

FILM Switzerland 2015
Karim Niazi

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

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Woman and The Glacier

FILM Lithuania, Estonia 2016
Audrius Stonys

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

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Balloonfest

FILM United States 2017
Nathan Truesdell

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

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Bridge Over Troubled Water

FILM Finland 2016
Jari Kallio Jaakko Pallasvuo

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

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As Soon As Weather Will Permit

FILM Canada 2015
Su Rynard

"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

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nebel (fog)

FILM Germany 2014
Nicole Vögele

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

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The Disquiet (2013)

FILM Lebanon 2013
Ali Cherri

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.

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Weather House

FILM Germany 2017
Frauke Havemann Eric Schefter

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

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Hugo Bumfeldt

FILM Hungary 2016
Éva Katinka Bognár

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

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Soroa

FILM Spain 2014
Asier Altuna

Arid soil, sun, wind. A procession crosses the landscape. The echoes of their prayers bring the rain.

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Dry Season

FILM USA 2015
Tyler Trumbo Max Good

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

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Tramuntana (2013)

FILM Spain, France 2013
César Pesquera

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

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In Search of Lost Future

FILM Spain 2016
Luis Quevedo Alfonso Par

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

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Rising Water: India's Sunderbans

FILM United States 2009
Daniel Grossman

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

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Point of No Return (2016)

FILM Canada 2016
Zachary Finkelstein

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

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A Numbness in the Mouth

FILM Ireland 2016
Kevin Gaffney

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

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Lembusura

FILM Indonesia 2014
Wregas Bhanuteja

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

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The Future

FILM Australia 2017
Greg Sharp

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

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After the Volcano

FILM France 2016
Léo Favier

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.

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MOD

FILM Turkey 2012
Deniz Tarsus

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.

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Deep Weather

FILM Canada, Bangladesh 2013
Ursula Biemann

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