Ursula Biemann: Deep Weather

Ursula Biemann’s short documentary connects the heavily fracked landscapes of the Canadian province of Alberta with flood events and sea-level rise in Bangladesh. Working through the interscalar hydraulic system as a space of political reconfiguration and remoteness, Biemann reports the submerged perspectives of indigenous populations, who resiliently adapt to the driving forces of a changing planet. In the film, we witness a community effort in building protective mud embankments juxtaposed with the hollowed out, extracted petro-landscapes of Alberta. Biemann questions what measures can be taken by populations “who progressively have to live on water when large parts of Bangla will be submerged and water is declared the territory of citizenship.”