ANIMALS: GESTURES OF ATONEMENT

It is undeniable that we have betrayed our cohabitants of earth. We have destroyed their habitats and enslaved the survivors to be exploited for food, clothing, medicine and entertainment. We have extracted from their bodies the catgut for violin strings and the gelatine used for coating celluloid film. This programme offers up gestures of atonement to the non-human world. In Mitayero an Amazon hunter experiences a change of heart following a dream in which a troupe of spider monkeys call him to account. The insults of children at a zoo are juxtaposed with the tethered power of a parrot in Destroyed for Ever, while in For Amigos, the entangled relationship of a smallholder to his goats, cannot, in the end, be redeemed. The artist sings a one-minute ode to the amphibian who shares his pillow in Gargantuan, punning as he declares “I love my newt/mi-nute”. An endangered species, the newt withholds its affection and sits in reproachful silence on the cusp of its own disappearance.    

The session will feature a Q&A with Barbara Borkala (For Amigos) and Shelby Prichard (Destroyed Be Forever All the Bonds of Nature), chaired by SFF trustee Helen de Witt.

For Amigos. A fairy tale for Adults

Barbara Borkala/ 2024/ Poland/ 30:00

For Amigos. A fairytale for Adults, is an experimental film, it documents a heroine’s journey of transition across various life forms and realities, interweaving themes of personal emotions, encounters, interspecies friendships, departures and returns, the circle of life and death, and the longing for authenticity and freedom.

Destroyed Be Forever All the Bonds of Nature

Shelby Prichard/ 2024/ UK/ 22:27

Destroyed Be Forever All the Bonds of Nature is an experimental assemblage of found and original material that explores the role of the moving image in both revealing and shaping human relations with non-human animals. Taking its title from a famous aria in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which has been performed by countless parrots on YouTube, it probes some of the ways in which the camera is used to reduce real animals to abstract objects for human pleasure and knowledge.

Gargantuan

John Smith/ 1992/ 16mm/ UK/ 01:00

“London artist John Smith uses light-hearted humour to explore theoretical concerns – Gargantuan, for instance, is both pleasantly silly and acutely conscious of how imagery depends entirely on its framing.” Fred Camper, Chicago Reader 2001

“A wonderfully witty example of how to conduct pillow talk with a small amphibian.” Elaine Paterson, Time Out 1992. 

MITAYERO

Kate Vinen/ 2024/ Australia/ 06:00

In the liminal space between the jungle and the wide river that runs through it, steeped in myths of anacondas, piranhas and jaguars, a man has lived alone in a secluded hut for twenty years. A hunter’s voice from the past shares a dream with his wife in which wild animals seek revenge on him, placing into question how everyday life will be lived in their future. While the couple’s human drama unfolds, nature remains unphased, time and the river moving forward – or is it backwards?