TIERRA

2022

Oaxaca, México

FILM FESTIVALS

FICUNAM 2024

OUTFEST FILM FESTIVAL 2023

OUTFEST Fusion QTBIPOC Festival 2023

Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival 2022 (Programmer’s Choice Award for Best Short Film)

Guanajuato International Film Festival 2022

Seattle Queer Film Festival 2022

MICGénero 2022

Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico - TIERRA Cycle 2022

OFFICIAL TEXT

“TIERRA” is an experimental film piece, directed by Fana Adjani. This story speaks about the recognition of the destruction, the transformation, the loss of territory, gender identity, ecofeminisms, and among other topics: the relationship within the feminist struggle, the defense of territory and seed, the recognition of the “self”, an identity within the maps and geographies of Latin America.

Latin America is nature and seed, but not only so, it is also collective memory, creation of culture. “TIERRA” was shot on location in Oaxaca, within the Sierra of San José del Pacífico, in Mexico. Oaxaca is a place that reflects various paradigms and dialogue axes both local and global, a space of social and environmental conflicts. “TIERRA” takes place in the forest, as a metaphor for the world within, because Latin America is dying. It is set within its own magical surrealism.

The original score by Simón Mejía (Bomba Estéreo) perfectly captures and enhances the mythological spirit of the piece while also transforming it into a futuristic opus.

In the realm of Mesoamerican/shamanistic beliefs of going toward the interior self, Lukas ‘nahual’ (a supernatural being who possesses the ability to transform his/herself into an animal) is birthed by our home, Mother Earth, and sets off in a quest, Light as his guide, and only chaos to provide the clarity that is missing. It is there where Lukas finds his/her gaze in the gaze of the other woman: Li (of Bomba Estéreo), they are a single entity and they know it, “one me in the other me”. We witness constant representations of the unfolding.

Lukas is transformed, Lukas ‘muxe’ is unity and strength. (“Muxe” is a third gender, unique within the Bernanke Za’a Zapotec culture; muxes are people born with biological characteristics of the male sex who assume traditionally social and cultural female roles as they develop through life.)

They find each other, they accompany each other, only in the collective embrace is where we find dance as a constant pulse of Life, it is a detonator of hope and action, they are a profound revolution and they demand justice as an expansion of the present and coming change, only through the vindication of Women can Latin America ever be free.

As the premise of the fight for the invisible peoples (which could be the premise of this piece) reads: “For the defense of joy and the organization of rage.”

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

TITLE - TIERRA

YEAR - 2021

DURATION - 14 MIN. 58 SECS. (SHORT FILM)

VIDEO SIZE - 4K CINEMA (4096x2160)

ASPECT RATIO - 1:1.85

FRAME RATE - 23.976 FPS

SCREENING FORMAT - DCP

AUDIO - UNCOMPRESSED 5.1 WAV

SAMPLE RATE - 48 KHz

LANGUAGE - SPANISH/ZAPOTEC

SUBTITLES - ENGLISH

SHOOT LOCATION - MEXICO

PRODUCTION - COLOMBIA, MEXICO, USA

DIRECTOR - FANA ADJANI

SCREENWRITER - FANA ADJANI & DAISET SARQUIS

PRODUCERS - DANIEL G. LEÓN, JORGE PERELLÓ & MAX CETTO

EXEC. PRODUCERS - ELEGANCIA TROPICAL, M3 MUSIC, ACCOUNTING & FILM, SONY MUSIC US LATIN 

MUSIC - SIMÓN MEJÍA

CINEMATOGRAPHY - EMILIO VALDÉS

CAST - LUKAS AVENDAÑO, LI SAUMET

RE-RECORDING MIXER - CARLOS CORTÉS

COLORIST - ERNIE SCHAEFFER

GENRE - EXPERIMENTAL, ART, LGBTQ+, DRAMA, ENVIRONMENTALISM

SCREENINGS

MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, FOUNDATIONS, SUMMITS

UCLA FILM & TELEVISION ARCHIVE

As part of Outfest Film Festival 2023 TIERRA was inducted into the UCLA Film & Television Archive for preservation.

In 2005, UCLA Film & Television Archive partnered with Outfest (founded at UCLA in 1982) to create the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for LGBTQ Moving Image Preservation. It is the largest publicly accessible collection of LGBTQ+ films in the world, a vital resource for students, faculty and researchers interested in LGBTQ+ moving images.

GAVLAK GALLERY

Private screening at Gavlak Gallery in its Downtown Los Angeles location in 2022.

COP16 / CALI, COLOMBIA

Screening at the 2024 International Summit of the United Nations on Biodiversity in Cali, Colombia.

CASA WABI FOUNDATION

Outdoor screenings for schools in 8 developing communities at the Pinotepa Nacional area in rural Oaxaca, as part of Casa Wabi Foundations activities during Fana Adjani’s residence in 2023.

GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA / AGÈNCIA CATALA DE LA JOVENTUT

Public screening in Barcelona, Catalunya, for the Videoforum activities of the Generalitat in 2023.

MANUEL ÁLVAREZ BRAVO PHOTOGRAPHIC CENTER AND GALLERY / OAXACA, MÉXICO

Public screening at the Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photographic Center and Gallery, for the Código DH (Human Rights Codes) activities of October, 2024.

CUERPOS PARLANTES / GUADALAJARA, MÉXICO

Public screening at the Colloquium on the Matrix of Domination and Confrontation of the Civilizational Crisis: New Political Horizons from Abya Yala activities of May, 2024.

CONTEMPORARY CALGARY / CALGARY, CANADA

Screening of Tierra on March 31, 2024, at the GALLERY HOURS gallery for Trans Day of Visibility, with the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

BEHIND THE SCENES