From Soil, Sand, and Salt Crystals: Filmmaker Conversation

Films and Natural Processes

From Soil, Sand, and Salt Crystals

Virtual screening: May 15–28

Filmmaker conversations: May 15, 7 pm and May 27, 1 pm

Saltwater, plastic, toxic minerals, sand or waste: matter accumulates and overwhelms, dissolves, decomposes, and reforms.

With the widespread closure of movie theaters and screening rooms, online experiences of film and media works are increasingly facilitated by digital devices. Material relations and components enmesh these objects within earthly cycles and natural processes as matter is mined, assembled, used, discarded or recycled—the aluminum that provides a polished shell for many laptops is also an abundant metallic element found in the Earth’s enveloping crust.

This program brings together a dozen films that emerge from material interactions between moving images and natural processes.

Watch online May 15–28 »

This screening was developed as part of the Department of Cinema and Media Studies and Smart Museum of Art’s Graduate Curatorial Internship, co-sponsored by the Film Studies Center. It is presented in conjunction with the special exhibition The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China. 

From Soil, Sand, and Salt Crystals is curated by Sophie Lynch, Smart Museum Curatorial Graduate Intern for Media Programming and PhD student, Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago.