ASKING TREES, BIRDS AND GHOST ABOUT FUTURE IMAGES AND SOUNDS
2024
by Eliana Otta
Artist Eliana Otta hiked through the Peruvian Amazon several times with a 360-degree camera strapped to her head, encountering indigenous communities along the way. Over two years, the Peruvian artist amassed approximately 500 hours of footage of the rainforest, which she then published on online platforms. For her short film "Asking Trees, Birds and Ghosts about Future Images and Sounds," Otta has condensed and artistically processed this collected footage, incorporating animation and poetry.
The project stems from the fact that numerous indigenous leaders and environmental activists have been killed in recent years while defending their land against exploitation and drug trafficking. In her film, Otta explores this collective grief and poetically questions trees, birds, and spirits about how we humans can treat our planet with greater respect and care.
The project was produced as part of the "Pixel, Bytes+Film" funding program, which supports artists in realizing innovative film formats and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture in cooperation with ORF III. Artistic moving image projects that experimentally explore new media and digital technologies are eligible for submission.
Zosia Hołubowska composed one of the songs for the movie (alongside Imayna Caceres with Yeni L., Susana Ojeda, and Marcela Torres from Feministiches* Bloco Decolonial, Yorgia Karidi, Edith Ramos with Tilsa Otta and Coral Rojo), creating breaths of imaginary ghosts and spirits, juxtaposed with their own voice and poems by Ali Cobby Eckermann (‘She is the Earth’).
The content was also enriched by animations made out of drawings by the Peruvian artists Enrique Casanto and Lastenia Canayo, from the Asháninka and Shipibo indigenous communities, respectively. The animations were made by the Peruvian artists Diego Vizcarra and Martín Aramburu.
