Artist's film, 2025, 10 minutes
Writer and Director: Annie Goliath
Performer: Sophie Page Hall Voiceover artist: Beth Organ
Singer: Annie Goliath Composer: Black Astronaut
In the year 2054, marine ecologist Sophia investigates a mysterious mass die-off of cuttlefish along the coasts of England and Ireland, but is unable to solve the crisis alone. Turning to her Irish friend Muireann, a follower of the ECO-POETIC-PSYCHISM movement that merges science, spirituality, and ecofeminism, they seek a solution through scientific research, ancient Celtic and Irish Neo-Shamanic practices. Muireann performs a shamanic ritual, entering an altered state to communicate with the cuttlefish, uncovering a deeper connection between the creature’s suffering and the broader environmental impacts of climate change. Through an empathic dialogue between the human and more-than-human world, the film explores the intersection of science, spirituality, and ecological crisis, highlighting the urgent need for a holistic approach to environmental restoration.
I used the genre of critical science fiction and the creative methodologies of entangled filmmaking, improvisation, and poetry. The entangled filmmaking process was an intuitive approach—listening, breathing, feeling, and improvising movement while filming—to co-create with the performer. The responsive film score and edit embraced improvisation. The poetic lines were an attempt to imagine this empathic dialogue, striving to re-establish respectful connections infused with wonder, awe, reciprocity and care.