short film by Jasper Coppes, 23 min., DCP, 2020
Recent footage of melting polar ice in Greenland as shown in the global mass media has represented the country as both the ground zero of climate crisis and a vast expanse for resource exploitation. The film Aasivissuit aims to provide a different view, showing instead the landscape and its inhabitants, focusing on people’s discussions about climate change and how they adapt in their complex relationship with the changing environment.
The film follows two park rangers exploring the Greenlandic landscape. They exchange new and old knowledge of the land in their conversations. They talk about how ancient fertile sediment from Greenland is used to nurture exploited soil elsewhere and how microbes have found a way to deal with pollution. Drawing attention to the non-human presence within the landscape, the camera occasionally adopts the perspective of a fly or a raven, or dives into one of the holes in the melting ice cap where toxic metals collect. The film investigates how we can experience and perhaps understand these different perspectives.
coproduction with Uilu Stories
PRESENTATIONS
2022 event at Filmhallen, Amsterdam ♦ Nordic Film Festival in Beijing, China ♦ installation based on Aasivissuit by Jasper Coppes in collaboration with Malu Peeters at HEM, Chapter 5ive ♦ 2021 ♦ Lima Alterna International Filmfestival, Peru ♦ Beetsterzwaag Triënnale ♦ IFFR Rotterdam ♦ Rencontres Internationales, Paris ♦ 2020 ♦ Environmental Film Festival Australia ♦ Nuuk International Film Festival ♦ 2019 ♦ Foraminerals Symposium, NIOZ, De Ruimte Amsterdam ♦ Kunsthuis SYB, Beesterswaag ♦ Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam
PRESS
Dagblad van het Noorden, Kirsten van Santen (in Dutch)
Five questions for Jasper Coppes, Kerstin Winking (in Dutch)
Aasivissuit is supported by
