Experimental Tuesdays: Marianna Milhorat, Just Above the Surface of the Earth (For a Coming Extinction)
April 22 | 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Date & Time | Location |
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Tuesday, April 22, 2025 (7–9 p.m.) | UWM Union Cinema |
A poetic portrait of contemporary wildlife conservation, JUST ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH reflects on empathy, agency, and the role of hope in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. A visceral, sensory meditation on what it means to live in a broken world. Marianna Milhorat is an American-Canadian filmmaker and artist based in Montréal.
She has presented her work at festivals and galleries worldwide, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Whitechapel Gallery, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Curtocircuíto International Film Festival, Kassel Dokfest, Videonale, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
A poetic portrait of contemporary wildlife conservation, JUST ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH reflects on empathy, agency, and the role of hope in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. This debut nonfiction feature examines scientists and citizen scientists who conduct surveys of frogs, which serve as an indicator species; study sea stars threatened by disease; track bats whose populations have been decimated by white-nose syndrome; and collect data on insects declining at unprecedented rates. Set primarily at night, the film weaves together observational and lyrical sequences, texts written by authors including W.S. Merwin and Adam Nicolson, and an otherworldly soundscape.
JUST ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH is a visceral, sensory meditation on what it means to live in a broken world.
Marianna Milhorat is an American-Canadian filmmaker and artist based in Montréal. She has presented her work at festivals and galleries worldwide, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Whitechapel Gallery, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Curtocircuíto International Film Festival, Kassel Dokfest, Videonale, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and Finlandia Foundation National.
Milhorat’s films examine ecology through human and nonhuman relations. Taking extended approaches to nonfiction film, her work pushes form and aesthetic to provoke new ways of seeing and thinking about the current geologic era and to create a more fluid, evolving picture of nature. She is Assistant Professor at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montréal.
Filmmaker in attendance!