Deborah Stratman’s speculative sci-fi opus Last Things posits a history of the world that rejects human primacy in favor of a radical centering of the body of the world itself—earth, gems, minerals. The film combines factual analyses of these geological elements with playful, mystical reveries; Stratman’s vision is at once grounded and operatic, blurring the line between fact and fiction and cultivating an authentically psychedelic and intimate, physically-palpable orientation toward our planet. In considering the world’s future, we consider our own—and the potential for a future world for which we can claim no ownership.
This radical critique of the anthropocentric perspective, and penchant for earthy psychedelia, is shared by Eclipsis, which tells a similarly speculative, lyrical story of a collision between the human and non-human. With elements of documentary, abstraction, and dance, Eclipsis imagines a mind and body-altering encounter with a rare Monarch butterfly subspecies.
-Rob Stammitti, guest curator
˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.
Doors at 7:30, movies start at 8
Eclipsis by director Tania Hernández Velasco, 2022, 16 minutes, digital
Last Things by director Deborah Stratman, 2023, 50 minutes, digital
