SULPHURUS FORMICIDAE

2020

The concept behind this film is about the apparently endless lines that clearly imply a sort of a ‘dialogue’ let’s say, between members of the family. Imagined this Queen that has sent them on a mission which appears to happen every season between June and September which is called the ‘Nuptial fly’, a relationship between multiple mating by queens that creates a colony genetic variability. They are called Lascius Niger or the Black Garden Ant. That dialogue and bustle drew my attention and I wanted to capture it in sound as well. The first frames though are a metaphoric forecast of what is coming. It’s a footage from the Mud Volcanos, Buzău county in Romania, a protected area with sulphurous soil and salt flats.The phenomenon is caused due to gases that erupt from 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) deep towards the surface, through the underground layers of clay and water they push up underground salty water and mud, so that they overflow through the mouths of the volcanoes, while the gas emerges as bubbles. Then, while working on it, I thought it can be also like a SF scenario where a new genetically huge mutant species of Formicidae is born from the Mud Volcanos, with a single mission, to save our Planet (and ‘Nuptial Fly’ is actually called when they embark to capture us all at night.) You’ll never know.

Rokolectiv Festival

SHAPE platform.