Our Ark

  • Deniz Tortum, Kathryn Hamilton
  • Netherlands, United States
  • 2021
  • 13 min
  • International Premiere
  • IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, Focus: The Future Tense

A gray lizard with yellow spots sits quietly on a tree stump, as digital cameras revolve around it. Click, click, click—the lizard is captured from every angle. Our Ark begins with a company that is making 3D copies of every animal on Earth—starting with the endangered species. A kind of virtual Noah’s ark.

Filmmakers Deniz Tortum and Kathryn Hamilton use this digital recording process as the starting point for a visual essay. Now that we have the technological capabilities, we’re trying make a sort of back-up of the entire world—forests are being digitally archived, as are monuments, and even everyday objects like garbage bags.

Shots of natural objects alternate with their 3D duplicates; the commentary offers explanation, but at the same time leaves room for us to ask our own questions. Who are all these digital archives for? What purpose is served by our urge to record everything? Do we hope to be able to bring this world back to life? And what happens to our notion of the real world if we think we can reduce it to ones and zeros?

Credits

  • 13 min
  • color
  • DCP
  • Spoken languages: English
  • Subtitles in: English
Director
Deniz Tortum, Kathryn Hamilton
Production
Firat Sezgin for Institute of Time, Ecegul Bayram for Institute of Time
Cinematography
Deniz Tortum, Kathryn Hamilton
Editing
Sercan Sezgin
Sound Design
Alican Çamcı

IDFA history

2021
International Premiere
IDFA Competition for Short Documentary
Focus: The Future Tense
2019
DocLab Demo Presentations

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