How Long Until We Die Out?
How Long Until We Die Out? is a documentary feature that tells stories of human otherness on the minority example of red-haired people. Why do some claim gingers will die out in a hundred years? Juliana, the ‘only ginger in the family’, takes pause at her own otherness in her relationship with red-heads and others. As the film’s narrator, she speaks to red-heads, joining a collective exploration of myths and stereotypes that gave birth to the ginger, as well as those apparently other. Suddenly it seems as though they could be applied to any minority whatsoever.
This personal film examines not only the potential extinction of redheads but also the global extinction of all species. It positions redheads as pioneers of a modern extinction narrative, related to human population growth and looming ecological crisis. Yet, in an era marked by increasing xenophobia and conspiracy theories, what perspective should we adopt? How can we maintain a sense of control over a world that seems to be slipping out of our grasp? Aren’t we ultimately all the same? Or are we different—soulless?
Juliana’s personal approach is without bias. She seeks in it a chimeric understanding and an effort to identify with one’s community. She asks how we exit a vicious circle of stereotypes that surround her. Her journey is one of genuine and personal uncertainties, as she explores the mode of her own survival.
The film’s story is told through three cameras capturing different perspectives and modes: observational, reportative and poetic. The film grapples with the question of how our otherness defines us—our survival and uniqueness. Does society’s perception of red-haired people reflect broader societal anxieties and feelings of not belonging? In the end, we will all face extinction, and in a dystopian twist, it may be redheads who disappear first, in their effort to save the planet.
This personal film examines not only the potential extinction of redheads but also the global extinction of all species. It positions redheads as pioneers of a modern extinction narrative, related to human population growth and looming ecological crisis. Yet, in an era marked by increasing xenophobia and conspiracy theories, what perspective should we adopt? How can we maintain a sense of control over a world that seems to be slipping out of our grasp? Aren’t we ultimately all the same? Or are we different—soulless?
Juliana’s personal approach is without bias. She seeks in it a chimeric understanding and an effort to identify with one’s community. She asks how we exit a vicious circle of stereotypes that surround her. Her journey is one of genuine and personal uncertainties, as she explores the mode of her own survival.
The film’s story is told through three cameras capturing different perspectives and modes: observational, reportative and poetic. The film grapples with the question of how our otherness defines us—our survival and uniqueness. Does society’s perception of red-haired people reflect broader societal anxieties and feelings of not belonging? In the end, we will all face extinction, and in a dystopian twist, it may be redheads who disappear first, in their effort to save the planet.
World of Walls
To evoke and imagine the near future, we decided to set our documentary feature project World of Walls in the environment of extreme social divisions and escalating climate crisis. The story takes place in an unspecified country that is being destroyed by continuous environmental disasters, located in today’s South Africa, close to Pretoria - Johannesburg. The rich are living inside strictly protected luxury estates with secure infrastructure, while the rest of the world survives on scarce resources on the other side of the wall. People knew these catastrophes were coming years in advance but ignored the fact. The dystopian reality is revealed through the curious eyes of the two child protagonists. At the beginning, the climate catastrophe affects Lorraine’s and Elizabeth’s worlds only subliminally, but as the film moves forward, the severity of incidents begins to escalate and thus increases the tension and the collective concern about the safety of the children. We put these disturbing scenes in contrast with children’s games and intimate interactions with their friends and parents. The threat of “force majeure” is always present, limiting their usual daily activities and infusing the overall mood of the community with fear and anxiety. Confronted with everyday disasters, the girls are trying to learn about the causes that brought the world to the threshold of climate catastrophe. At some point, they come to understand that it is also their parents who allow the ongoing destruction of the planet, making their children’s lives unbearable.