EXOSKELETONS + SUN UNDER GROUND + THE ENTANGLED FOREST

Exoskeletons

Mariana Castiñeiras / Hungary, Uruguay, Belgium, Portugal / 2022 / 18 min / European Premiere

An expedition into the micro world of insects with a passionate beetle collector and a Uruguayan film director who has an ingrained phobia of anything that crawls.

An exoskeleton is a kind of external shield that protects creatures like beetles, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, ants and ladybirds. And Uruguayan director Mariana Castiñeras has an ingrained phobia of all of them, which she decides to confront once and for all. Together with a passionate beetle collector, she goes on an expedition deep into the forest to capture the micro world of insects with her camera, before the beetle collector catches them in his net. In doing so, Castiñeras confronts her own fear of insects in a series of beautiful and colourful close-ups, in which she uses her phobia of the little bug as an opportunity to reflect on life, death and the limits of knowledge.

Sun Under Ground

Alex Gerbaulet, Mareike Bernien / Germany / 2022 / 39 min

Archaeological excavation of the many layers of narratives surrounding uranium, with threads back to the Soviet Union and nuclear weapons programmes.

The white, radioactive metal uranium radiates like a sun in the darkness under ground while the planet Uranus travels across the sky. From 1946 to 1990, the Soviet company SAG Wismut operated mining operations in Germany. The company dug for uranium, which was used in the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons programme. But how does the mining of the past haunt the landscape today? And how is it all connected to the spectre of socialism? Examining the earth as if it were a vast archive, the aesthetically accomplished ‘Sun Under Ground’ takes us on a contemporary speleological journey. A journey where the sedimented narratives surrounding uranium materially, metaphorically and geopolitically are unearthed and re-examined along the way.

The Entangled Forest

Nick Jordan / United Kingdom / 2022 / 17 min / International Premiere

The internal communication and nonhuman intelligence of plants are reflected on a field trip to a forest with biology professor and pioneer Suzanne Simard.

Biologist Suzanne Simard is a pioneer in plant communication and organic intelligence. She compares a forest to a community in which all trees, fungi and tiny organisms interact. Based on a dubious interpretation of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, modern societies have otherwise justified the natural need of species to compete with each other in order to survive. Simard argues that cooperation and a sharing of resources are the basis for any society to thrive and prosper. British artist Nick Jordan’s beautiful and down-to-earth film introduces Simard’s ideas, giving them both colour and texture as the camera travels through the forest.