About

‘Dust to Dawn’ is a selection of short films that present phantasmal narratives traversing past, present and future realities. From eco-allegories warning of the long-term effects of overconsumption and e-waste, to post-apocalyptic tales prophesising the rebuilding of society, these films gather the dust of the past to look optimistically into the dawn of the future.

Fossils 2023

Fossils is a vibrant, science-fiction voyage into technological histories and futures, as conducted by a future archaeologist and a paleo-media-ontologist as they explore the e-waste dumping grounds of a tropical landscape.

Understanding current screen-based technologies as relics, the film’s narrative engages with the virtual and physical materials used by humans in the era of the Anthropocene to emphasise the alarming amassing of contemporary e-waste.

Cementing this theoretical investigation further, Fossils utilises live-action sets built from waste materials, scenes from a flea market, 3D assets and AI images generated from thousands of unused images from a personal dataset to emphasise the role of physical and virtual technologies in connecting us across the past, the present, and into the future.

13 minutes | Ages 12+ | Mild science fiction themes and violence

Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous 2023

Artist Subash Thebe Limbu’s Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous 2023 moves between past and present to speculate on futures where indigenous knowledge is not only maintained, but forms the basis for new technologies.

Commissioned by the VH AWARD of Hyundai Motor Group, the film envisions a conversation between a sixteenth-century Yakthung warrior and a time traveller, who discuss the precarious state of indigenous culture and sovereignty in the wake of colonial oppression. In this scenario, the memories of the time traveller and the imagination of the warrior collide, resulting in a present moment that destabilises the certainty of past and future realities.

15 minutes | Ages 12+ | Mild themes and infrequent coarse language

In Vitro 2019

In artist and filmmaker Larissa Sansour’s In Vitro, two intergenerational scientists come together to discuss the intricate relationship between past, present and future, and the lasting effects of memory, trauma, and exile.

Set in Bethlehem the aftermath of an eco-disaster, local townships have moved into an underground compound in a desperate bid for survival. Within the compound, an abandoned nuclear reactor has been converted into an orchard where heirloom seeds, collected in the final days before the apocalypse, have been cultivated by scientists ready to replant into the soil above. In the final moments of the orchard founder’s life, a young clone named Alia comes to visit the ailing scientist to learn more about the town that she’s destined to rebuild.

Shot in black and white, In Vitro is a two-channel short film that skillfully combines memory and nostalgia with futurist imaginings to create a visually poetic narrative that asks philosophical questions relating to the current and future states of humanity.

28 minutes | All Ages | Very mild themes