Choreographies towards loss
60 min, creative documentary, 2024
Directed and produced by
Irene Margrethe Kaltenborn
Cinematography
Irene Margrethe Kaltenborn, Margo Peegel, Anton Kai, Jens Alfred Raahauge
Sound
Irene Margrethe Kaltenborn, Margo Peegel, Anton Kai
Editing
Irene Margrethe Kaltenborn
Distributor
Filmform
Synopsis
If human-made extinction was a choreography, this is how we have
performed it. The great auk was the original penguin, but disappeared
from the Earth in the mid-1800s. The filmmaker travels around to meet
various people and places with a connection to the extinct bird, from
the home of the author of The Great Auk in England to the old zoological
museum in Copenhagen, where the entrails of the last two great auks are
kept in glass jars. Through their stories and observations we look back
on the life of a species that will never return.
If human-made extinction was a choreography, this is how we have performed it. The great auk was the original penguin, but disappeared from the Earth in the mid-1800s. The filmmaker travels around to meet various people and places with a connection to the extinct bird, from the home of the author of The Great Auk in England to the old zoological museum in Copenhagen, where the entrails of the last two great auks are kept in glass jars. Through their stories and observations we look back on the life of a species that will never return.
“The eccentric work of the Norwegian filmmaker is not wrongly described as a “documentary”. More original definitions, such as “requiem for an extinct animal”, would be more appropriate. Her film goes beyond the mission of the classic documentary, incorporating imaginative sequences that are symbolic, speculative, ritual and mysterious..
The director meticulously recounts the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the Alca impennis. In the most traditional part of the documentary, she visits biologists, anthropologists and natural history museum curators.. The director peers out, like a goblin in the midst of human evil, next to stuffed birds and gigantic, perfectly preserved eggs..
In the most evocative parts of the film, we see the same Irene Margrethe Kaltenborn, dressed in a ceremonial costume of white and black colours that can evoke the colouring of the majestic feathered creatures, standing with other performers similarly dressed in fascinating Nordic sceneries, sometimes close to small statues representing the Alca impennis. These are moments of strong mystery, almost shamanic, that add pathos to the story and inevitably heighten the pain of this, as well as any other loss of biodiversity. Unsurprisingly, there is an inscription right at the end of the film, which is a warning to the individual spectator and above all to humanity, warning us that in the time it takes to watch the film, an average of six animal species or subspecies will become extinct. It seems pointless to add more.”
- Excerpt from a review by Stefano Coccia for Taxidrivers
(translated from Italian to English)
Installation views from Gallery KHM1, Østlandsutstillingen and Bergamo Film Meeting
