The Ecological Grief series is an ongoing series of works focusing on different aspects of human interaction with nature in the Anthropocene. I try to investigate environmental melancholia and the loss of places, species and ecosystems.
The first part Antarctic Traces is a 30min essay film focused on animals and took whale hunting as an paradigmatic example of our historical way of relating to a different species.
The second part The Great Thaw is a collaboration with Karl Lemieux. The documentary focuses on permafrost thaw and its consequences. (special thanks to Dr. Jennifer Watts from the Woodwell Climate Research Centre!)
The third part When Fire Turns to Ash is in post-production right now and is interested in how the genocide of the Indigenous Peoples in Tierra del Fuego is inscribed in the landscape.
The fourth and presumably last part will look closely at old growth forests and root systems. (in pre-production).
Once finished the series will have looked closely at all entities on our planet: animals – humans – inorganic matter – plants. I’m interested in a world that allows non-human entities to have agency as well and is governed by a post-capitalist logic of justice and equity for all.
„Rather than simply turn our attentions and attachments to the new, as consumer capitalism would have us do, we bring our griefs with us as we think toward the future. A politicized depression is, here, one that insists on recognizing and indeed acting from despair. By allowing our lost places to be fields of grieved lives and possibilities, we might enable more thoughtful reflection on what it is we are losing, and what we lose about ourselves in the process.“
[Catriona Sandilands, Losing My Place. Landscapes of Depression in Ashlee Cunsolo & Karen Landman, Mourning Nature. Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss & Grief]