OTHER-GROUNDS FILM FESTIVAL – REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND

READ ABOUT ALL FILMS HERE

Colonial narratives are deeply woven into our timeline, spaces, and surroundings. The crises we face today—environmental, social, and political—are also crises of perception, imagination, and relational intelligence. How do we loosen the grip of ego-centric paradigms? Trapped in an anthropocentric, capitalist worldview, we struggle to see beyond the systems that shape our reality. How do we create space for other ways of being, knowing, and relating—ways that existed before, often silenced, when we lived in deeper connection with nature?

Recognizing the need for diverse voices and knowledge systems, we can, through experience and honest dialogue, enrich our intentions and practices for cultivating an ecology of belonging. Around the world, Indigenous communities, ecological practitioners, and many others are working to protect nature and the more-than-human world. The Nature Rights movement seeks to legally, politically, and socially uphold the protection of life, ecosystems, and biodiversity.

Today, we may be ready to unlearn and relearn—together with humans, other-than-humans, and the land. It is time to open pathways for learning new ways of relating to the world. Other-Grounds Film Festival is an intercultural, collective initiative exploring what it means to be human on Earth and our responsibilities in an ecology of relationality.

A combination of films, roundtables, and conversations, Other-Grounds Film Festival brings together diverse ways of knowing, amplifying voices that advocate for sustainability, collective consciousness, Rights of Nature, and more-than-human perspectives—where an eco-centric existence is seen as an evolutionary goal.

Program: 

DAY 1. (02.05) Community:

17:30: Doors open

18:00: Opening Ceremony with short speech, drinks and snacks

18:10:
FILM: The River is Me
Director: David Freid
Country: United States, Aotearoa (New Zealand)| Year: 2018 | Runtime: 17 minutes

19:00 Break 

19:10 Round-table on Rights of Nature, nurtured by Dr. Angela Snæfellsjökuls Rawlings, Ole Martin Sandberg, Vena Naskrecka, Ólafur Páll Jónsson 

20:00 Closing word

DAY 2. (03.05) Knowledge-gathering: 

12:30: Doors Open 

13:00:
FILMS: The Church Forest of Ethiopia
Director: Jeremy Seifert
Country: Ethiopia, United States | Year: 2020 | Runtime: 9 minutes

FILM: Honouring Darkness
Director: Juan Camilo
Country: Iceland, Colombia | Year: 2018 | Runtime: 18 minutes

13:30 Break

14:00:
FILM: Mamu
Director: Aephie Chen
Country: Taiwan, United Kingdom | Year: 2024 | Runtime: 15 minutes

+ Interview with the MAMU director Aephie

15:00: Break

15:15:
FILM: ICE
Director: Christoph Matt, Bernhard Poscher, Sympoietic Society art collective
Country: Austria | Year: 2023 | Runtime: 6 minutes

FILM: Qulleq
Director: Aka Hansen
Country: Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) | Year: 2023 | Runtime: 3 minutes

FILM: Shangri-La
Directors: Seoyeon Ha and Leon Meschede
Country: Mongolia, South Korea, Germany | Year: 2023 | Runtime: 23 minutes

16:00: Break

16:30: The Sounds of Mongol Nutag with KHAIRKHAN 

17:30: Short Closing word

DAY 3. (04.05) Passing down knowledge:

11:30: Doors Open 

12:00: Roundtable on climate anxiety with Ungir Umhverfissinnar 

13:00: Break 

13:30:
FILM: A Tree Is Like A Man (2019)
Director: Thorbjörg Jónsdóttir
Country: Iceland, Colombia | Year: 2019 | Runtime: 29 minutes

FILM: Time and Seashell
Director: Itandehui Jansen
Country: Mexico | Year: 2020 | Runtime: 13 minutes

FILM: Baigal Nuur-Lake Baikal
Director: Alisi Telengut
Country: Buryad-Mongolia, Germany, Canada | Year: 2024 | Runtime: 10 minutes

14:30: Break 

15:30: Interactive crafts workshop for kids by Christoph Matt (eco-social designer) on imagining the world,
where biodiversity has disappeared 

16:30: Break 

17:00:
FILM: I Am The River, The River Is Me
Director: Petr Lom
Country: Aotearoa (New Zealand) | Year: 2024 | Runtime: 86 minutes

18:30: Closing words

Graphic Design:

Christoph Matt (eco-social designer)

Curators:

Daria Testo: dariatesto@gmail.com

Juan Camilo: juanhildur@gmail.com

Supported by: