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Film Screening: Re-Imagining Landscapes in Time of Ecological Crisis
Join the Visual Methods Studio of the Concordia Ethnography Lab for the first screening of the year! This session will explore the intersections between anthropology and filmmaking through the screening of three short audiovisual works by Andrea Bordoli, each of them proposing a formal and conceptual encounter with a specific territory.
By considering human-nonhuman entanglements, by tracking flows and transformations of matter, and by imagining speculative scenarios that blur past, present and future tenses, each of these films proposes a filmic encounter to “think with” and “think through” some key elements of the contemporary ecological crisis.
ABOUT THE FILMS:
The Depth Beneath, The Height Above (2018) is a 18-minute documentary film exploring the high alpine region of Robiei, Southern Switzerland. Through a juxtaposition between the aesthetics and activities taking place above – the continuous stream of water, the movement of animals, the processes of production of cheese – and respectively below the ground level – the mechanisms and technologies involved in the hydroelectric production, as well as the humans interacting with them –, the film conveys a sensory ethnography of this peculiar landscape.
DiVisi Di Pietra Memorie (2021) is a 9-minute docu-fiction essay that develops a poetic reflection around the issues of water exploitation and rock mining in the Swiss Alps. By juxtaposing contemporary images to archives, and by proposing a storytelling mix of documentary and fictional elements, the work is an invitation to engage with the geological and human memories that shape and haunt current extractive environments.
Per Voi Oggi la Luce del Sol non Splenderà (2021) is a post-apocalyptic, eco-fiction short film portrying two construction workers wandering in a “zone” where inner and outer territories intertwine. In a constant search for traces, they are increasingly confronted with a universe that over days and nights becomes overwhelming.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Andrea Bordoli has a background in Visual Anthropology (MA, University of Manchester), Visual Arts – Cinema (HEAD – Genève), and Anthropology and Philosophy (BA, Neuchâtel University). His research and practice lies at the intersection between anthropological theory, film and visual art. He is currently based between Switzerland and Québec, and he is pursuing a practice-led PhD in Media Anthropology at the University of Bern as part of the interdisciplinary project “Mediating the Ecological Imperative” (https://ecological-imperative.ch/). Since January 2022 he is a visiting artist-researcher at the anthropology department of McGill University.His works have been presented in academic settings and exhibited in film festivals and art spaces nationally and internationally, such as Cinéma du Réel Paris, Festival dei Popoli Florence, Vancouver International Film Festival, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, European Media Arts Festival Osnabrück, the Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, and others.
In parallel to his personal research he collaborated with various research groups and institutions such as EASA CH, Université de Neuchâtel, Université de Berne, Locarno Film Festival and Cinémathèque Suisse.
📅: September 13 | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m
📍: VA-114 Cinema