Archipelago of Earthen Bones – To Bunya

synopsis

The landscape of Eastern Australia, born of extinct volcanoes and solidified magma, both barren and lush, connects to the Pacific volcanic arc. Multiple exposures on 16mm film directly in the camera create visual overlaps and disrupt the gravitational logic of the image, while dynamic editing scrambles time and space – the present sinks into the depths of geological memory. This environmental visual poem is accompanied by field recordings and musical compositions by Lawrence English.


“Filmed across the lands of the Turrbal, Yuggera, Jinibara, Gubbi Gubbi, Wakka Wakka, Jarowair, Barrumgum, Quandamooka, and Butchulla Peoples in Australia. We acknowledge them as the Traditional Custodians and Knowledge Keepers of the land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.”

biography

Malena Szlam (b. 1979) is a Chilean filmmaker living in Montreal, Canada. Her audiovisual work is permeated by a sensitivity to the geopolitical and geological layers of the landscapes she explores, and an emphasis on the affective dimension of film processes. Her works have been shown at festivals and exhibitions; in 2024, for example, she participated in the exhibition femmes volcans forêts torrents at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. The Ji.hlava IDFF, which discovered her for the Central European region, has screened her films Beneath Your Skin of Deep Hollow (2010), Lunar Almanac (2013), and Morphology of a Dream (2018).

film details

director:	Malena Szlam
producer:	John Edmond
photography:	Malena Szlam
editing:	Malena Szlam
sound:	Lawrence English
sound design:	Lawrence English

contact

Malena Szlam
szlammalena@gmail.com

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