An essay film about the directors' efforts to create a virtual replica of the real world by creating 3D models of animals, rain forests, cities, and people; archiving as if ecological collapse could be staved off through creating a digital Noah’s Ark of beasts and objects.

Deniz Tortum, Kathryn Hamilton

Deniz Tortum works in film and immersive media. His work has screened internationally at the Venice Film Festival, IFFR, SxSW, IDFA, Sheffield DocFest, and Dokufest. His latest film, PHASES OF MATTER (2020) premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and received the Best Documentary Award at Istanbul and Antalya Film Festivals. His previous film, IF ONLY THERE WERE PEACE (co-directed by C. Grimaldi, 2017), received the Best Short Documentary Award at Dokufest, and his VR film FLOODPLAIN (2018) premiered at the Venice Film Festival. He was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2019.

Kathryn Hamilton, aka Sister Sylvester, is an artist and self-taught microbiologist making work in New York and Istanbul. As Sister Sylvester she creates essayistic performances that use firsthand research, found documents, animals, and technology to make cross-species collaborations and cyborg theater. She teaches a bio-hacking performance class, The School of Genetically Modified Theater, and has taught that and other classes at Colorado College, Princeton, UCCS, Columbia University, Bogazici, Istanbul, and MIT. Her work has been reviewed by Artforum, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Performance Art Journal, and Telerama."