Plastic Aortas 

Director / Cinematographer / Editor / Sound Designer: Malic Amalya

Color Grading / Sound Mixing: Clovis Stocchetti

16MM WITH OPTICAL SOUND

CC & OC available

10 minutes

2024


Created with support from Atelier 105’s post-production residency at Light Cone; Paris, France


DESCRIPTION:

Plastic Aortas is a portrait of the black plastic encasing the Fells Reservoir in the unceded land of the Massachusett, Pawtucket, and Naumkeag indigenous peoples. The lining was placed there by conservationists in order to mitigate the invasive Common Reed, which is killing native plants. However, the lining also interferes with wildlife and contaminates the water.

The film’s title references Roland Barthes' 1957 essay, "Plastic," in which he writes, “The hierarchy of substances is abolished: a single one replaces them all: the whole world can be plasticized, and even life itself since, we are told, they are beginning to make plastic aortas.” 65 years after Barthes’ essay was published, in 2022, microplastics were found in human blood and, in 2023, in human heart tissue.

In this 16mm film, tension rises between the benefits and hazards of plastic or, as Barthes describes, between plastic and “life itself.”



FILM SCREENINGS:

Artifact Film Festival — Night 2: North American Shorts — Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers; Calgary, AB; Canada — 7:00pm on Friday, April 4, 2025

Wide Open Experimental Film Festival — Program 5: The End — Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Oklahoma City, OK — 2:30pm on Sunday, April 6, 2025

Light Field — Program 3: Curated by Zachary Epcar — The Lab; San Francisco, CA — 5:00pm on Saturday, April 12, 2025

Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival — Program: From the Depths — Heart of Hawick; Hawick, Scotland — 10:00am on Saturday, May 3, 2025