Argentine-British artist filmmaker Jessica Sarah Rinland proposes a cinema of tactility. Closely observing the work of archivists, archaeologists, naturalists, and others, her films investigate museological and environmental conservation as a creative process. This programme consists of a selection of works made between 2006 and 2021 and is followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. 

Bosque 
Jessica Sarah Rinland / 2006-2007 / UK / 4’ / Digital / silent 
 
An impressionistic portrait of a woodland in Southern England, shot on 16mm over two years, before and after felling.  
 
Y Berá – Bright Waters 
Jessica Sarah Rinland / 2016 / Argentina, UK / 10’ / Digital / English spoken 

With her 16mm camera, Jessica Sarah Rinland documents the incredible biodiversity of fauna and flora of the second biggest wetland in the world (Iberá, in Argentina). “In Y Berá – Bright Waters (2016), humans have disappeared altogether, merely present in the written and spoken descriptions that catalogue the many shimmering organisms to be found in a vast Argentinian wetland.” (James Lattimer) 
 
Black Pond 
Jessica Sarah Rinland / 2018 / UK / 42’ / Digital / English spoken 

“Black Pond explores the activity within a common land in the south of England. Previously occupied by the 17th century agrarian socialists, the Diggers, the land is currently inhabited by a Natural History Society whose occupations include bat and moth trapping, mycology, tree measuring, and botanical walks.  

After two years of filming on the land, the footage was shown to the members of the Society. Their memories and responses were recorded and subsequently used as part of the film’s narration. The film does not offer a comprehensive record of the history of humans within the area. Instead, it explores more intimately, human’s relationship with and within land and nature.” (Jessica Sarah Rinland) 

Sol de Campinas 
Jessica Sarah Rinland / 2021 / Brazil / 26’ / Digital / Portuguese spoken, English subtitles 

Sol de Campinas observes a team of archaeologists as they excavate a ring of mounds within a territory currently known as the State of Acre, Brazil. They have been working at the site for the past ten years and are trying to uncover artifacts from an indigenous people who once occupied the land. Jessica Sarah Rinland examines the processes of excavation through detailed 16mm images of the archaeologists at work. Moving between the field and the lab, Rinland constructs an intimate study of the site today whilst an image of its history also starts to emerge. 

Followed by a Q&A with Jessica Sarah Rinland.