Cometa 1600, the debut feature film from multi-disciplinary visual artist Alejandra Díaz Olvera, taps into her passions for innovative photography, spirituality, and the environment to deliver a sprawling and abstract work of experimental science fiction sure to linger with the viewer long after the credits roll. Describing the film as an audiovisual essay aimed at deepening the viewer’s connection with the natural world, Olvera draws upon a wide variety of elements from her own artistic practice to draw the audience into a dreamy experimental landscape reflecting the complex and mysterious realities of the ecosystem we inhabit.
Set in an uncomfortably near future, the narrative of the film follows the journey of a young citizen journalist named Emilio Borges (Fernando Bernal). Once the documentarian of an activist scientific research group called Cometa 1600, Emilio is a fugitive searching for the truth about the mysterious disappearance of his colleagues. Looking back, he recalls the existential dread and disconnectedness that drew him to respond to the group’s advertisement in the first place. In a world characterized by deep hopelessness and unease in the face of a seemingly inevitable climate disaster, Emilio yearns for any opportunity to infuse some sense of meaning into his life. Meeting with Isabel (Gloria Castro) and Ingrid (Andrea Barbier), he finds himself drawn in by their passion for their work, and excited to offer himself up to their efforts.
Responding to pervasive apathy in the face of impending environmental disaster, Isabel and Ingrid are determined to shed light on the connection between the negative effects of climate change and mental health, characterized by the rise of a mysterious and rapidly spreading virus called E48. Discovering an important connection to the migration patterns of monarch butterflies – and more importantly, the health of their habitats – their research and activism begin to draw negative attention, making them the target of powerful forces determined to silence them and prevent them from revealing their discoveries and lobbying for radical change.
Unfortunately, despite the characters’ frequent reminders of the danger they were facing, I never felt fully convinced. While climate activists throughout the world often face great opposition and even criminalization, it seemed unclear why their research would be so radical or threatening that it would merit such drastic retribution. Surely, in an age of rampant online propaganda, it would be more prudent to simply publicly discredit the group’s findings? One would think that going to the extremes of kidnapping or murder would simply add credence to their words. To be sure, however, it is typically advisable to suspend one’s own disbelief in order to fully enjoy many works of speculative science fiction, and this piece is no different.
Touching upon the fascinating and vitally important theme of ecological interconnectedness, the film is at its most successful in its most abstractly artistic interpretations. Drawing on a confident experimental art practice, Olvera constructs an evocative assemblage of images and soundscapes evoking the physical and metaphysical connections between all living creatures. In addition to incorporating collage and multimedia projections to evoke the poetic imaginary of our collective dreamscape, Olvera developed an innovative cinematographic technique mimicking the way the kaleidoscopic way that butterflies observe the world around them. By allowing the audience to anchor themselves in the perspective of those delicate creatures, she encourages us to reflect on the ways we are irrevocably connected, whilst creating a rich and visually dynamic landscape to be explored.
Undoubtedly, as Olvera seems to be communicating with this work, there is a great deal we don’t know about the underlying interconnectedness of all things in the natural world. Certainly, if we as a species are to have any hope of survival, we have much to learn about our place in the world. In order to overcome the challenges ahead, it will be vitally important to embrace the innate intelligence of nature, and in the process gain a greater understanding of how humankind fits into the balance of the greater global ecosystem. Despite the alarm it sounds, Olvera’s film remains hopeful. As her camera lingers on stunningly beautiful images of thousands of butterflies congregating in peaceful mountain forests, we are struck by one simple fact: the butterflies, against all odds, persist.
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