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Fern Silva

Rock Bottom Riser

Doc. expérimental | super 16mm | couleur | 70:0 | Portugal, USA | 2021

From the earliest voyagers who navigated by starlight to the discovery of habitable planets by astronomers, Rock Bottom Riser examines the all-encompassing encounters of an island world at sea. As lava continues to flow from the earth’s core on the island of Hawaii – posing an imminent danger – a crisis mounts. Astronomers plan to build the world’s largest telescope on Hawaii's most sacred and revered mountain, Mauna Kea. Based on ancient Polynesian navigation, the arrival of Christian missionaries, and the observatory’s ability to capture the origins of the universe, Rock Bottom Riser surveys the influence of settler colonialism, the search for intelligent life, and the discovery of new worlds as we peer into our own planet's existence.

Fern Silva (1982, USA/Portugal) is an artist who started working as an editor and cameraperson in NYC. His early films were centered on his relationship to Portugal and have since expanded, underlining the influence of global industry on culture and the environment. For over a decade, his 16mm films have been screened widely in festivals, museums, and cinematheques including the New York, Toronto, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Hong Kong International Film Festivals, MOMA, New Museum, Anthology Film Archive, and the Harvard Film Archive. They've been awarded prizes from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, 25FPS, Zinebi, and an Agora Award from the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. His work has been featured in publications including Cinema Scope, Film Comment, and the New York Times. He's taught filmmaking at various institutions including the University of Illinois at Chicago, Bard College, and Bennington College and has received support from the Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as well as the Film Study Center at Harvard University. He studied film at the Massachusetts College of Art and Bard College and is currently based in Greece and the US.