Reviving the extinct is the act of bringing back the disappeared or obsolete, and utilizing it for understanding the past, adapting it to the contemporary context, and preserving it for future exploration. Each of these films is a living species or an object that has gone through some form of resurrection due its gaping absence. Our memories are left with traces of a past that has a ripple effect on our constructed and natural environments. Should we reintroduce these relics from the past in either petrified states under glass windows? Or as restored organisms modeled from extinct species thrown back into the wild that could either restore ecosystes or contribute to their drifting instabilities.
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
"Save the Bucardo" is the story of scientists who fought to save an emblematic animal of the Pyrenees, the Bucardo, from extinction. They took a historic step in science, the first de-extinction in the world, the first real "Jurassic Park".
We are backing up the planet, creating 3D models of animals, rainforests, cities and people. We are archiving as if ecological collapse could be staved off through some digital Noah's Ark of beasts and objects. OUR ARK is an essay film on our efforts to create a virtual replica of the real world.
A portrait of Utopia loosely framed by Plato's invocation of the lost continent of Atlantis in 360 B.C. and its resurrection via a 1970s science fiction pulp novel. Some say that the island of Malta is a remnant of the lost continent of Atlantis, a contested claim that superimposes the mythic grande
The use of new bio-technologies to bring back extinct species has been, and still is, a widely discussed topic. While science fiction has already over-worked this fantasy, it has become more than just fiction. Researchers are making more and more progress, especially in the first steps of de-extinct
Shot in the Sharjah desert, The Digger follows the everyday life of Sultan Zeib Khan, the Pakistani caretaker who has been guarding the ruins of a Neolithic necropolis for twenty years. A witness to the nation's founding mythologies, Sultan preserves archeological ruins, keeping them from falling in
Carolina returns to Costa Rica to try to rebuild the relationship with her father. After a few months, her father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. At that moment, Carolina meets Ifigenia, an archaeologist expert in the stone spheres found in the south of Costa Rica; the country's great enigma. S
Through the collective memory of a 250 million year old species which has survived two mass extinctions, structures of exploitation, industrial monoculture, and interspecies relations are reframed through the plantationocene.
Arecibo, the world's largest radio telescope, is located in Esperanza, Puerto Rico, which is also home to a critically endangered species of parrots. The telescope functions as an ear that is capable of capturing signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. The witty messages from the parrots remain unno
This animated short summarizes the findings of a research paper published in Science in 2021 titled "Extinction at the end-Cretaceous and the origin of modern Neotropical rainforests". Using mixed media, it illustrates how 66 million years ago the impact of the asteroid that fell on Chicxulub caused
How can we remember or envision animals that have died out? The unique zoological collection of the Martin-Luther University in Halls (Saale) provides the chance to look history and extinct animals in the (glass) eye. The collection is still expanding. By following taxidermists and entomologists at
Shakhbout shares with us the story of the first speaking Arabian Oryx "Mozaik" that changed the course of his life and for that matter the future of humankind.
Three animal lives entangle at the edge of the sea. Horseshoe crabs spawn on eroded urban beaches, migrating shorebirds seek sustenance at a midpoint, and humans attempt to make a difference in this age of mass extinction.
Revir is a story about longing for a life that isn't handed to you. Siblings Susie and Sune have been left to themselves since childhood. Together they buy an old farmhouse and surround themselves with animals—live, dead and in different stages of resurrection: She is a promising taxidermist a
Are hipsters becoming a subspecies of humans? What is life expectancy? How do they dress? How fast does their beard grow? In the spirit of Jean Rouch's Chronicles of a Summer, anthropologist Eleanor Drew goes on an exploration into the unknown and conducts interviews with bypassers to understand the
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.
Creature Catalogue—Naturalisation (I) is part of an ongoing artistic research interrogating a shared heritage between documentary filmmaking and taxidermy. Both practices are obsessed with collecting and staging realities and with questions of representation, realism, naturalism. They share an