Ruins of the Future

We live in a present haunted by the ghosts of the past – remnants of possible yet unfulfilled futures that nevertheless linger in a spectral form, infusing both public/political discourse and private discussions, and, especially, the cultural productions of our time. These thoughts are the basis for what the theorist Mark Fischer called “lost futures”, the inspiration behind our first program of this edition's International Short Film Competition. The films in Ruins of the Future are not as much an invitation towards an archaeology of these futures as they are an urge to contemplate them and situate their ruins, both physically and ideologically. Whether they’re happening in an urban setting or in a natural landscape, on the border between the two or within abstract, digital territories, these films question our fragile, overtly nostalgic contemporaneity. (Flavia Dima)

VISION OF PARADISE

Leonardo Pirondi | Duration 16 min.

Maps of the 15th century could sometimes render both the real and the imaginary. Visão do Paraíso follows the search for a mythical island in the “New World”, while exploring the capacity of human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments and to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a new kind of “New World”.

THE VEILED CITY

Natalie Cubides-Brady | Duration 13 min.

The Veiled City is a sci-fi city symphony inspired by London’s Great Smog of 1952. Created from archive footage, the film unfolds through fictional letters from a post-apocalyptic future. We are invited to understand the smog in the context of the present-day climate emergency and our global destiny.

THE SECRET GARDEN

Nour Ouayda | Duration 27 min.

The inhabitants of a city awake one morning to find that never-before-seen trees, plants, and flowers suddenly erupted throughout the streets and in the squares. Strange and mysterious events start taking place as Camelia and Nahla investigate the origins of these new and peculiar creatures.

FEEL THE HEAT

Pasi Autio | Duration 9 min.

A one-man disco in a forest at night – the lights are flashing, birds are singing, dancing continues and time disappears. After the atmosphere in the forest reaches its height, it starts declining freely and uncontrollably. The night cannot go on forever and, in the morning, the surrounding reality is revealed.

CENTER, RING, MALL

Mateo Vega | Duration 17 min.

A multi-vocal triptych through peripheral sites of urban infrastructure: a data center, a ring road, and a run-down mall. All three sites were built with certain worldviews - visions of the future and US-influenced promises of progress that didn't turn out to be the utopias they presented themselves as.

BLISS.JPG

Emily Rose Apter, Elijah Stevens | Duration 9 min.

A travelogue through the familiar and unfamiliar terrain of digital landscapes. Pairing 16mm footage of computer desktop backgrounds with soundscapes of sites of technological extraction – precious metal mining, smelting foundries, microprocessing plants, and data farms – Bliss.jpg excavates and examines the geological and geographical sites that produce our virtual worlds.