User:Totoleheros

Hi I'm Toto. Welcome to my research

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Methods

CTMethods

Toto's methods

What, How, Why:

'Water that birds don't drink' is a documentary film about an Amazonian fisherman family, who are witnessing physical and mental displacement due to the construction of a dam. 

'Belo Monte' , is the name of a large hydroelectrical dam openend in 2016 on the Xingu river located in the Brasilian Amazon basin. The Belo Monte project, constructed to produce 'green' hydroelectrical energy, became highly controversial due to it's negative environmental and social side effects. In a short poetic film we follow a fisherman family who are witnessing negative effects in their lives, such as displacement and eco-logical disruptencies which lead to a lack of prospect on their economic activities as fishing and small scale farming.

how: In the film we focus on their split existence between their life next to the river and their life in the neighboring city, a traditional and a new way of living. The film focusses on visual contrasts and the family's reflection rather than hard factual data and information.

Why: First of all the film tries to highlight social implications and effects of the Belo Monte project on it's near inhabitants. But mostly the films tries to focus on reflection and meaning of loss of a livelihood, meaning of living close to nature vs living in the city. Next to this I personnally am interested in researching on people who are being in state of transition.

2nd take on 1st story What:

'Water that birds don't drink' is a 27 minute long poetic documentary film about an Amazonian fisherman family, who are witnessing physical and mental displacement due to the construction of a dam. 

'Belo Monte' , is the name of the large hydroelectrical dam openend in 2016 on the Xingu river located in the Brasilian Amazon basin. The Belo Monte project, constructed to produce 'green' hydroelectrical energy, became highly controversial due to it's negative environmental and social side effects. In the film we follow a fisherman family who are witnessing negative effects in their lives, caused by the dam, such as: displacement and eco-logical disruptencies which lead to a lack of prospect on their economic activities as fishing and small scale farming. In the film we focus on their split existence between their life next to the river and their life in the neighboring city, a traditional and a new way of living. The film focusses on visual contrasts and the family's reflection rather than hard factual data and information.

How: In the film I have tried to focus on visual contrast between the fisherman family split existence. Firstly we emphasited on this contrast by showing day to day sequences of their lives in the city as next to the river editeted harshly after eachother. Secondly we used a green screen effect to show the contrast of their split way of living by using it as a frame in a frame window that is showing ; a portal to the river being in the city or a showing the city being on the riverside.

Why: First of all the film tries to highlight social implications and effects of the Belo Monte project on it's near inhabitants because I think it is important to show that the social and ecological price, of projects like the Belo monte dam, can be higher than it’s benefits. But mostly for me I wanted to make a film that is focused on people who share their reflection of meaning on a loss of a livelihood, because I wanted to emphisise that these stories have a universal message and question, is the modern world really better for us human beings? I am personnally interested in researching on people who are being in state of transition, a transition from a way of living because it creates a space for us who we are as humans and how we want to live.

2nd story

What: Do I Smell Smoke? is a playfull exploration on what is on peoples minds during one of the hottest days in Rotterdam. Xaver, Toto, Lisette and Merijn collaberated for the first time to partake on i

3: What: Constructed Land is a short visual film that shows close ups on a construction of a river channel in Nijmegen (2015). A poetic film consisting of observing images on a construction side to question the relation culture and nature .In a series of close up shots we see moving land, sand and water like they were caused by natural forces, however they are the effect of human construction. The film plays with the expectation of looking at nature to question human domestication on the earth.

How: I have used the technique of zooming in on reality to decontextualize and to lose the feeling of scale. I have edited the film from super close to zooming out to reveal the scale in order to show the viewer the thing they were looking at. I have put a soundtrack under it of a very deep sound of a vulcano to empower the effect of a natural force.

Why: I am personally interested in theoretical topic of nature vs culture and tried to illustrate it with this vissual film.

Notes and references

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About Me

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