Artist Carlos Casas returns to Tate Modern to present the UK premiere of his award-winning feature Cemetery. This deeply sensory film follows an elephant, a mahout and the poachers in their pursuit as they move toward the mythical place known as the elephant graveyard. As the journey transitions from the jungle through stages of death, images begin to fall away, opening onto a rich sonic landscape.
Ten years in the making, Cemetery weaves together field recordings from around the globe, recorded and mixed by wildlife sound expert Chris Watson with the collaboration of professor Tony Myatt (spatialisation and Ambisonics). Finding a striking juncture between nature documentary, experimental film, road movie and soundscape, the film opens up questions about life cycles and memory, colonialism and extinction, conservation and the environment and interspecies relationships.
Programme
Cemetery, [France, United Kingdom, Poland, Uzbekistan] 2019, DCP, colour, sound, 85 min, English and Sinhalese with English subtitles
Discussion with artist and Tate Film curators
Biography
Carlos Casas (b. 1974, Spain) is a filmmaker and artist who engages with the overlap between documentary, experimental film and the natural world. He develops immersive soundscapes to explore questions of memory and mortality.
Cemetery is presented as a joint UK premiere with the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2019, where the film screens on 19 September.
Carlos Casas, Cemetery, 2019, film still. Courtesy the artist
Carlos Casas, Cemetery, 2019, film still. Courtesy the artist
