Fordlandia Malaise
Susana de Sousa Dias, Portugal 2019, 40 Min.

Miasma, Plants, Export Paintings
Bo Wang/Pan Lu, China 2017, 28 Min.

An Invocation to the Earth
Yeo Siew Hua, Singapore 2020, 16 Min.

Tellurian Drama (Early Cut)
Riar Rizaldi, Indonesia 2020, 27 Min.

Stories from the South features places where the world has ended multiple times already due to colonial expansion. The short film programme explores new forms that escape hegemonic modes of thinking, knowing that we cannot solve the problems of the present within the framework that caused these issues in the first place. Fordlandia Malaise explores the aftermath of Fordlandia, a company town founded by Henry Ford in the Amazon rainforest in 1928. Miasma, Plants, Export Paintings looks at acclimatization efforts during the expansion of the British Empire and exposes the entanglements of imperialism, scientific modes of examining the environment, and the construction of racial boundaries. An Invocation to the Earth confronts climate collapse through the lens of pre-colonial folktales and animistic rituals. Tellurian Drama, of which we will screen an early cut, looks at the material remnants of a colonial radio station in West Java to problematize the notion of decolonization, technology and the historicity of communication.

Riar Rizaldi is a Hong Kong based Indonesian artist and amateur researcher. His main focus is on the relationship between capital and technology, extractivism, and theoretical fiction. His works have been shown at Locarno Film Festival, BFI Southbank London, International Film Festival Rotterdam, NTT InterCommunication Center Tokyo, and National Gallery of Indonesia amongst others.

Yeo Siew Hua is a Singaporean director and writer. His last feature film, A Land Imagined (2018), won the Golden Leopard at the 71st Locarno Film Festival and was selected as Singapore’s entry to the 92nd Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category.