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
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