Film Screening: Becoming Animal Free

Join the Department of Film Studies on 23 November at 1pm at in the Buchanan Lecture Theatre for a free matinee screening of Becoming Animal (Emma Davie) on the day it receives its theatrical release. This is a stunning experience of sound and image that radically alters the expectations of the nature and wildlife documentary.

In its examination of the relationship between humans and the myriad of species that inhabit our planet, Becoming Animal gives new cinematic to ways of thinking. The film is based on a group's field trip to Wyoming's wild nature; the bio-philosopher David Abram, the two filmmakers Emma Davie and Peter Mettler, and an abundance of bison, moose and birds inspired Becoming Animal.

Both form and thought are unchained in a film that ends up moving (far) beyond man's self-centred view of nature, and into a state of almost psychedelic receptiveness. As Mettler asks in a diaristic note: “are language and modern technology a barrier or an open door between ourselves and the world that surrounds us? And what about the medium of film itself?”

Throughout his many years as a filmmaker, Mettler has dealt with abstract phenomena such as northern lights, ecstasy and time itself. With Davie as fellow filmmaker and Abram as a travelling companion, Becoming Animal (named after Abram's landmark book) is a film that makes you see everything with slightly different eyes.

This screening is held in conjunction with the Film Studies Departmental Speaker Series and guest speaker Dr Laura MacMahon's talk later that afternoon at 4pm.