TIERRA
2022
Oaxaca, México
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 Poster
“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.”
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