Where Lands Meet Water

Humanity has an uncertain symbiosis with the oceans that cover 3/4 of the globe. They’re an enormous tapped and untapped natural resource, but also threaten our shores with rising waves and unpredictable weather, even as they maintain a grip on the imagination. These films are all about our lives along the shores.

FILMS:

The Disquiet | 20 min | Lebanon | 2013

Directed by Ali Cherri

Lebanon has witnessed a number of violent earthquakes as a result of its geographical location on several fault lines. Through an investigation of the country’s seismic history, The Disquiet explores the catastrophe in the making.

Lulu: Story of a Pearl | 10 min | UAE | 2013

Directed by Shaikha Al Ameri and Mariam Khanji.

Pearls mean to different people. Once, pearls drove the Abu Dhabi economy. Now they’re returning in cultured form with new technology and help from Japan.

Return to the Sea | 11 min | UAE | 2014

Directed by Alexis Gambis

After so many years in a dormant state, a young man sets off on a long, perilous yet healing journey from the mountain to the sea where he conducts his most ambitious symphony piece ever undertaken. This is the journey through the young man’s brain waking up and recovering the ability to detect motion.

Slow Life | 4 min | Australia | 2014

Directed by Daniel Stoupin

Colorful ‘slow’ marine animals come to life with complex focus-stacking time-lapse techniques. Corals and sponges play crucial roles in the ocean ecosystems, yet our understanding of their daily lives is highly limited.

Green Matters | 11 min | Finland | 2011

Directed By Mia Mäkelä

In Green Matters, Mia Mäkelä approaches eutrophication of the Baltic Sea from a new angle. Her experiments with green algae, explore their possible use with traditional rug-making techniques.

Microscope Time-Lapse: Sugar Crystalizing out of Solution | 2 min | USA | 2014

Directed by Gary and Jason Greenberg

Microscope time-lapse: sugar crystalizing out of solution. Appreciation of the crystallization process as a beautiful quantum phenomenon.

Emergency Calls | 15 min | Finland | 2013

Directed by Hannes Vartiainen & Pekka Veikkolainen

Being human is a fragile and fleeting opportunity to experience life and the universe around us. In the face of overwhelming darkness all we can do is to rely on and find solace in one another. This film is based on authentic emergency calls and radio traffic.

The film program will be followed by a panel discussion.

Imagine Science Film Festival is presented in partnership with NYUAD Institute.

ARTS IN CONTEXT

Post Screening Panel 8:30 pm

For our closing night panel we return to the sea for a conversation on aquaculture in the Persian Gulf, the science of pearls, and the long lifespans of coral colonies.

PANELISTS

AYESHA AL BLOOSHI // Director of Marine Biodiversity, Environment Agency Abu Dhabi

Ayesha joined EAD in 2008 as an Aquaculture Scientist. She has been involved closely with projects designed to ensure the condition are right for the development of an enabled and sustainable aquaculture sector in Abu Dhabi. She also has experience in the pearl industry having worked with key players in the global pearl culture scene, along with managing an EAD sustainable pearl culture farm in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi.

RACHEL SUSSMAN // Artist

For nearly a decade, Rachel Sussman has been developing the critically acclaimed project “The Oldest Living Things in the World,” for which she researches, works with biologists, and travels all over the world to photograph continuously living organisms 2000 years old and older. The Oldest Things in the Living World Slideshow is part of Experimental Records in the Project Space.

SHAIKHA AL AMERI & MARIAM KHANJI // Directors, Lulu: Story of a Pearl

Shaikha Al Ameri and Mariam Khanji made Lulu: Story of a Pearl as their graduation project as film majors at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Mariam Khanji is currently working as a production Executive in Intaj, Twofour54.

MODERATED BY

ALEXIS GAMBIS // Filmmaker, Founder of Imagine Science Films

Alexis is a French­Venezuelan scientist, filmmaker and founder of Imagine Science Films, a non­profit focused on scientific storytelling through film. He received his Ph.D in Molecular Biology from The Rockefeller University and an M.F.A in Film from NYU Tisch. Alexis has written and directed over a dozen short films, including Deja Vu which won the 2012 National Board of Review Award and premiered at the 2014 Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Biology, Film & Media at NYU Abu Dhabi and lives between Brooklyn, Paris and Abu Dhabi