Photographic transparencies and documentary footage tell overlooked stories of labour, from prehistoric tools to Portuguese stonemasonry.
Stories about stones ground this essay film: archaeological discoveries of prehistoric tools, sculptures commemorating colonial wars, and traditional paving techniques. Interwoven are narratives including Ga’s relationship with her brother and a quest arising from an out-of-print book.
The three-part screen shows Ga’s hands manipulating photographic transparencies over lightboxes. Using her movements to create visual meaning, the film tells of human labour excluded from world histories: the drudgery of communist re-education camps, an artist’s antifascist engravings, and stone artisans of pavements in Lisbon and former Portuguese colonies. These counter-narratives resist prevailing frameworks of progress and domination.