To mark the publication of Elemental World Cinema: Cinematic Entanglements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air (Brill), Cinema Mentiré invites you to a programme of contemporary Latin American short films exploring the four classical elements. An edited collection, Elemental World Cinema is the first book-length study to examine the relationship between cinema and the elemental. Rejecting the abstract and overused concept of ‘nature’, the volume centres instead on earth, fire, water and air to offer more concrete and specific perspectives on the intersection of film and the nonhuman in a time of climate emergency.

Hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, the selected shorts span fiction, documentary and experimental film. In them, earth, fire, water and air emerge not only as visually enticing forms but also as powerful lenses through which to reflect critically on some of the most pressing issues of our time, including Indigenous land displacement, resource extraction, and the ongoing legacies of slavery and colonialism. Together, the films offer a rich meditation on the entanglement of the human and the nonhuman, social and physical environments, and the cosmic and the geological.

The screening will be preceded by a conversation with the book’s co-editor, Dr Tiago de Luca, and followed by a drinks reception. This event is supported by the University of Warwick.