Homo Sapiens, as a species, possesses a unique attribute -- we generally view ourselves as outside of the rest of nature, inherently different from even our closest genetic cousins. Despite that, in these pre-interplanetary days, our place in the world and fate as an organism is as dependent on the earth's biosphere as any other, a fact that may become strikingly clear within the merest geologic nanosecond or two. In order to weigh the implications of this, both seriously and playfully, we will begin 2017 with a collection of films about our place in the natural world: changing climate, waste cycles, altered ecosystems, and observations, or even notes from, the wildlife whose lives intertwine with our own.
Gustavo Londoño hunts birds' nests in the Manú National Park in Peru. He rigs them with cameras to identify what predators eat eggs and chicks. His research results suggest surprising challenges that some birds will face as the region warms further. Director | Daniel Grossman Editor |
Throughout the 19th century scientists transformed living birds into dried, stuffed, and otherwise preserved scientific specimens. Today scientists seek to transform these lifeless specimens into living birds through the emerging science of de-extinction. Exploring these transformations, Archives of
The science fictional video essay unfolds across the Subatlantic, the latest climatic phase of the Holocene that began about 2,500 years ago and is still ongoing. With its peaks and drops, this climatic period has registered major civilizational changes and movements, juxtaposing the science of geol
A colorful international team of zoologists, vets and games keepers work together to bring the Arabian Oryx, the symbol of Arabia, back to its native habitat in the Abu Dhabi desert after near extinction.
Hlynsky uses frame-blending to great effect, to give you a sense of overall motion trajectories. When he turns his lens on animals, the results are both beautiful (see fruit flies paint a still life here ), and an exciting way to visualize huge amounts of data. It's got me thinking I could use this
A lilting paean to the manifold strains of native grass that cultivate upon Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh. Frenetic movement and textures dominate the frame, and the synergy between sound, locomotion, and image creates a hypnotic sensory panorama.
Springtime along the Mid-Atlantic seaboard thousands of horseshoe crabs spawn on beaches under the glow of the full moon; a reoccurring ritual for the last 450 million years. Citizen scientists venture out along the shore to keep tally of their population. The film attempts to document the annual ob
Season of Wonder is a cine-poetic work that situates us amongst the irregular cycles of a destabilized world. It intertwines that which I witness with that which I imagine. A perceptual blur arises, where the freakish quietly morphs into the everyday. I am working in the area of unnatural history in
Deforest is an art/science project that combines environmental critique with material enquiry. In this project, sulphuric acid – a highly corrosive acid that burns to the touch – is used to dissolve photographs of old growth rainforest from subtropical Queensland. Deforestation is one of
The film applies an unconventional narrative. It presents a subjective world through 47 scenes. Small events, interlaced by associations, express the irrational coherence of our surroundings. The surreal situations are based on the interactions of humans and nature.
Two fictional species try to make it through the day in this bleak, animated parody of the natural world.
Welcome in Anthropocene is a short animated video, directed by Loïc Fontimpe and produced by NGO Wild-Touch. It goes through the history of how man, with his industrial activities, has become the first actor of a new geological area : The Anthropocene. Equipe technique : Réalisation et s
Wayward Fronds references a series of historical events that helped shape the Florida Everglades today, while fictionalizing its geological future and its effects on both native and exotic inhabitants. Guided by recent talks in the Florida legislature to finally disburse billions of dollars in resto
'Herbarium' is a cinematographic observation based on the changes in the classification of plants. Going from classical taxonomy to genetic data-storage, Visser wonders what is left when the plant its separated from its physical features. What is a plant to us, without the sensation of smell, textur
In Green Matters , Mia Mäkelä approaches the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea from a new angle. Her experiments with green algae explore their possible use with traditional rug-making techniques.
Exiled from the tropical paradise where they evolved, a handful of remarkable stick insects dodged extinction by hiding on a single, windswept bush on the world's tallest sea stack for 80 years. Now they live safely in captivity, but when can they go home?
An educational reenactment about the life of deviant wapitis. Credits / Anssi Kasitonni (Author), Anssi Kasitonni (Director), Anssi Kasitonni (Editor), Ville Pirinen (Actor), Kusti Vuorinen (Actor), Anssi Kasitonni (Sound) Anssi Kasitonni is a skateboarder and an award-winning artist from Sahalahti,
In 1957, Claude Lorius, a young student, joined the pioneers of polar science in Antarctica. This experience of extreme living revealed his calling : Claude would be a glaciologist. Convinced that the ices of the Antarctic contained crucial data to understand the climatic history of our world, he pu