HIMMELSFEUER
TOMORROW, THE BURNING HEAVENS
Max Bloching / Germany / 2024 / 22 min / Colour
The cannons for making artificial snow lie abandoned among the pipes, the cracks in the ski slopes, and the stubs of the ski lifts, while the snowcats scrape off the nothingness that is left of the ice, for skiers who descend on miserable strips of snow. This landscape of a climate apocalypse evokes another, that of 28 December 1560 when a rare meteorological phenomenon caused the sky of the Swiss and German Alps to "catch fire." Back then the mountain dwellers truly feared the Apocalypse, which materialised in the form of a brief ice age (from 1560 to 1700) that disrupted the growth of crops and life in the Alps. The hand-painted woodcuts evoke this phenomenon, while a disturbing audio commentary suggests a parallel with what the mountains are experiencing today, due to the rise in temperatures at high altitudes.
Max Bloching
A German filmmaker and sound artist, based in Berlin, he holds a BA in social anthropology from SOAS and an MA in artists' film from Goldsmiths University, London. His films have been shown at festivals such as Mimesis Documentary Festival Colorado, Ethnografilm Paris, and the Moscow International Festival for Visual Anthropology. Himmelsfeuer (2024) was in competition at Visions Du Réel, Switzerland.
Credits
Screenplay Max BlochingCinematography Max BlochingSound Maya Scherr-Willson, Till AldingerEditing Max BlochingMusic Milo McKinnonProducer Max Bloching, Marie Bloching
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