Deborah Stratman, France/USA/Portugal, 2023, DCP (shot on 16mm), 4:3, colour, 50’, english and slovenian subtitles

Evolution and extinction from the point of view of rocks and various future others. The geo-biosphere is introduced as a place of evolutionary possibility, where humans disappear but life endures.

The human race is old, but rocks are timeless. Weaving stunning imagery with evocative text and interviews, the film observes the history of all of us and this planet Earth through the most essential parts — evolution and extinction, from the POV of rocks. The immensity of our existence is hard to fathom, and we are obsessed with our past, looking for reasons. A huge journey we should take on a cinema screen. In a distinctive style seen throughout her long career, Deborah Stratman skilfully combines pure science with speculative fiction, not to give you an answer to the meaning of life, but to provide sounds, images, and ideas to contemplate. The use of both microscopic and landscape photography, we see the luscious textures of rocks and matter and our handprints on it. Texts from writers enhance the journey, ranging from the creators of the science fiction genre to experts of stream-ofconsciousness reflections. Stratman blurs the borders of poetry, narrative, and fact in an ethereal adventure. As one interviewee states, “Rocks have a history, but they don’t remember it.”