Leviathan Cycle Long Trailer Episode 8: Cris, Sandra, Papa & Yasmine (2023)

Commissioned by Hybrid Futures (a multi-part collaboration focusing on climate, sustainability, collaborative learning and co-production between Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool; Touchstones Rochdale; University of Salford Art Collection and Shezad Dawood Studio, and generously supported by Arts Council England and Art Fund), Leviathan – Human & Marine Ecology and The Void, Derry. Courtesy of UBIK Productions.

Episode 8: Cris, Sandra, Papa & Yasmine, an episode in Shezad Dawood’s epic film series Leviathan Cycle, considers some of the urgent issues of our time such as climate change. Episode 8 was developed remotely in collaboration with Guarani scriptwriters, directors and activists Carlos Papá, Cristine Takuá, Sandra Benites, and Brazilian artist and researcher Anita Ekman. This film not only expands the collective and horizontal filmmaking method that has become a central feature of the cycle's second half, but reduces its own environmental impact through an intimate yet remote co-authorship.

Set in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest – one of the most ecologically diverse and threatened biomes on earth – Episode 8 blends indigenous cosmology with fictional narrative, shot footage and especially commissioned animation by Anita Ekman, to chart an embodied, spiritual and ecological journey along the age-old Guarani path that links the forest to the sea.