Shorts: Human Nature
Human Nature reflects on the essence of humankind: the ways we act, think, and feel as a species. The program explores our often artificial relationship with the environment, our interactions with flora and fauna and the power structures that shape both the natural world and our own societies.
Spanning three continents, the shorts reveal the complex bond between humans and nature. From Congolese communities labouring in brutal conditions to extract coveted minerals, to the mapping of Colombia’s last centennial forests; from escapist fantasies staged in manmade “natural” environments to the extreme consequences of yet another failed farming project. The films invite us to reconsider the cost of ‘progress’and the fragile equilibrium between our natural surrounding and manmade realities.
In this combined programme
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This Is Not Your Garden
Carlos Velandia, Angélica Restrepo
Rooted in wetlands, páramos and centennial forests at the verge of disappearing, memories and a speculated future collide. Five hundred years of exploitation, exile and resilience are nourished by a collective pain and a desire to crack through it all.
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Goats!
Tonći Gaćina
On a remote Adriatic island, goats have roamed freely for 40 years, following a failed farming project. Now deemed a problem, armed men arrive to restore “natural balance” through a chilling cull – revealing how easily violence can be justified as the only solution.
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Amarelo Banana
Alexandre Sousa
After another night of insomnia, a man comes across a strange community living in his building and discovers the elaborate illusion they have created.
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Deep Cobalt
Petna Ndaliko Katondolo
In the claustrophobic depths of the Mutoshi mine in Katanga (DRC), Ndjimu follows The Rememberers – a community labouring in unsafe and brutal conditions to extract coveted minerals from the ancestral soils to feed global tech empires, to their own detriment. Set to a soundtrack of metallic rock being crushed, Ndjimu i...