In the fall of 2023, I took the MIT Media Lab’s City Sci-fi course. We studied the cultures, architectures and technologies of Indigenous Amazonian societies and then made a short film to demonstrate how these learnings can be applied to design the ecologically aligned cities of the future. Partnering with Georine Pierre, we set out to make a movie based on one overarching premise:
Everyone has become Indigenous-to-Place again.
Logline: Two young teens from partnering tribes undergo a coming-of-age ritual where they venture beyond their territories to explore new lands. By coming into contact, they are able to share their ancestral stories and gain a glimpse into the global sphere of modern indigeneity.
Synopsis
This story highlights untold stories of Indigenous peoples in Amazonia set about 100 years in the future, inspired by the stories of the Quilombola and Warao peoples. Through ongoing histories of the fight for territory and belonging, the narrative follows both characters who have access to “secret territories” accessible by water (in the clouds and river streams) and are protected by the environment itself. In this alternative future, humans adapt to nature in the most spiritual and technological sense and non-verbal language evolves. New language and communication styles arise between humans of the Quilombola and Warao settlements, plants, and fungi through ancient cultural traditions, sensory augmentation technology, and the land’s mycelial memory currents. Land is an essential partner in communication technologies.
All visuals were either AI generated with Midjourney and Runway ML or sourced from YouTube.
