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Last Things

Forum Expanded
© Deborah Stratman
Evolution and extinction from the point of view of rocks and various future others: Last Things introduces the geo-biosphere as a place of evolutionary possibility, where humans disappear but life endures.
Catalysed by two novellas by J.-H. Rosny, joint pseudonym of the Belgian brothers Boex who wrote sci-fi before it was a genre, the film takes up their pluralist vision of evolution, where imagining prehistory is inseparable from envisioning the future. Also formative were Roger Caillois’s writing on stones, Clarice Lispector’s “The Hour of the Star,” Robert Hazen’s mineral evolution theory, the symbiosis theory of Lynn Margulis, Donna Haraway’s multi-species scenarios, Hazel Barton’s research on cave microbes, and Marcia Bjørnerud’s thoughts on time literacy.
In one way or another, these thinkers have all sought to displace humankind from the centre of evolutionary processes. Passages from Rosny and interviews with Bjørnerud form the film’s spine. Stones are its anchor. We trust stone as archive, but we may as well write on water. In the end, it’s particles that remain.
by Deborah Stratman
with Valérie Massadian, Marcia Bjørnerud France / USA / Portugal 2023 French,  English,  Subtitles: English 50’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Valérie Massadian
  • Marcia Bjørnerud

Crew

DirectorDeborah Stratman
ScreenplayDeborah Stratman
CinematographyDeborah Stratman
EditingDeborah Stratman
Sound DesignDeborah Stratman
SoundSimon Apostolou
ProducersDeborah Stratman, Anže Peržin, Gaëlle Boucand

Produced by

Pythagoras Film

Chicago, USA

+1 3122431227

www.pythagorasfilm.com www.pythagorasfilm.com

Stenar Projects

Lissabon, Portugal

+35 1968341939

Elinka Films

Paris, France

www.elinkafilms.fr/ www.elinkafilms.fr/

Photos

Deborah Stratman

Artist and filmmaker Deborah Stratman makes work that investigates issues of power, control and belief, exploring how places, ideas, and society are intertwined. She regards sound as the ultimate multi-tool and time to be supernatural. Recent projects have addressed freedom, surveillance, public speech, sinkholes, levitation, orthoptera, raptors, comets, evolution, extinction, exodus, sisterhood, and faith. Stratman’s films and artworks have been exhibited and awarded internationally. She lives in Chicago where she teaches at the University of Illinois. This is her fourth participation with Forum Expanded.

Filmography

1990 My Alchemy; 7 min. 1991 Upon a Time; 10 min. 1992 A Letter; 7 min. · Possibilities, Dilemmas; 10 min. · the train from la to la; 8 min. 1993 In Flight: Day No. 2,128; 2 min. · Palimpsest; 3 min. 1994 Waking; 7 min. 1995 Iolanthe; 5 min. · On the Various Nature of Things; 25 min. 1997 From Hetty to Nancy; 44 min. 1999 the BLVD; 64 min. 2001 Untied; 3 min. 2002 In Order Not to Be Here; 33 min. 2003 Energy Country; 15 min. 2004 Kings of the Sky; 68 min. 2005 How Among the Frozen Words; 1 min. 2006 It Will Die Out in the Mind; 4 min. 2007 The Magician’s House; 6 min. 2008 Butter and Tomatoes; 4 min. · The Memory; 2 min. 2009 O’er the Land; 52 min. 2010 Kuyenda N’Kubvina; 40 min. · FF; 3 min. · Shrimp Chicken Fish; 5 min. · Ray’s Birds; 7 min. 2011 …These Blazeing Starrs!; 14 min. · A Throb; 1 min. 2012 Village, silenced; 7 min. · The Name is not the Thing named; 11 min. 2013 Musical Insects; 7 min. · Immortal, Suspended; 6 min. 2014 Hacked Circuit; 15 min. · Second Sighted; 5 min. 2016 The Illinois Parables; 60 min., Forum Expanded 2016 · Xenoi; 15 min. 2017 Siege; 7 min. 2018 Optimism; 15 min., Forum Expanded 2018 2019 Vever (for Barbara); 12 min., Forum Expanded 2019 2021 For the Time Being; 7 min. · Laika; 5 min. 2023 Last Things

Dates

Programme 2

Last Things

Fri Feb 17 17:30

Kino Arsenal 1

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Sat Feb 18 20:00

Werkstattkino@silent green

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