A Journey Through Time in the UAE

This screening features a series of films written and directed by Alexis Gambis in the United Arab Emirates. The films explore the boundaries of documentary and fiction, presenting a variety of landscapes in the UAE, featuring animals (or internal organs) as actors, and providing anthropological points of views on the state of this planet. A Q&A session with the director follows the screening.

The featured films include:

Return to the Sea (11 mins, UAE, 2017)
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.
* Filmed in Ras Al Khaimah

Guardian of the Mangroves (9 min, UAE, 2016)
Fatouh, the guardian of the Mangroves, has not been seen for some time. Some say he left after disputes with local tribes while others claim that it was due to increasing destruction and pollution of these ecosystems in the Arabian Gulf.
* Filmed in Umm Al Qwain

Insan (12 mins, UAE, 2017)
Shakhbout shares with us the story of the first speaking Arabian Oryx "Mozaik" that changed the course of his life and for that matter the future of humankind.
* Filmed in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi

Anthropology of the Future (6 mins, UAE, 2018)
A series of 6 chapters that explores the future of humanity through the embodiment of the future in evolving creatures.
* Filmed in Abu Dhabi

Through the Glass Lightly (3 mins, UAE, 2018)
An older man meets his younger self in a timeless desert and tells him what the future holds.
* Filmed in Abu Dhabi

Image Credit: Imaginal Disc

Speakers

• Alexis Gambis, Assistant Professor of Biology, Film & New Media, NYUAD