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.”
AWARDS:
HONORABLE MENTION by jurors Christina C Nguyen & Malia Haines-Stewart — ICDOCS: Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival — Iowa City, IA — April 2025
FILM SCREENINGS:
Artifact Film Festival — Night 2: North American Shorts — Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers; Calgary, AB; Canada — April 4, 2025
Wide Open Experimental Film Festival — Program 5: The End — Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Oklahoma City, OK — April 6, 2025
Light Field — Program 3: Curated by Zachary Epcar — The Lab; San Francisco, CA — April 12, 2025 *Malic in attendance
Experimental Forum — Art House; Los Angeles, CA — 9:45am — April 15, 2025
MUFF: Milwaukee Underground Film Festival — Program 3 — The Jazz Gallery; Milwaukee, WI — April 18, 2025
ICDOCS: Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival — Program 3: Macrocosm — AJB, University of Iowa; Iowa City, IA — April 26, 2025
Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival — Program: From the Depths — Heart of Hawick; Hawick, Scotland — May 3, 2025
Moviate Underground Film Festival — Program: Cinatura Revisited — Midtown Cinema; Harrisburg, PA — May 17, 2025
Diffusion curated by the Reassemblage Collective — Program 2: Shifting Ground — CineCycle, Toronto — August 8, 2025
