STEM (Sound from the Tropical)

is a film about the migration of plants and botanical gardens in decay. Years of neglects of the Lisbon University Garden have created a romantic environment where the garden is growing wild. The film investigates the displacement in migration and morphology of plants. And investigates some of the post-colonial environmental ramifications of transfer into new subjectivities of the"other."

The film came together as is a collaboration between the filmmaker and the German sound artist Max Schneider. Together they traveled Brazil to sound record 17 unique plants. The film features an interview with professor James Clifford, author of "The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art" (1988), "Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late 20th Century" (1997), and Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty First Century" (2013).

director:Lasse Lau

sound: Max Schneider

cinematographer: Valentina Summa

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with comments by James Clifford ​

guide: Deuzimar Cruz Lopes

focus puller:Samuel Amaral

key grip: Pedro Santos

research assistant: Lara Morais

location assistant: Kamila Metwaly

security: Jorge Manuel Courela Chaves

edit: Lasse Lau, Max Schneider

color: Andreas Birch, Johs Møgelvang