Microreview: Of celluloid, plants, and archival monsters – Leandro Listorti's HERBARIA

Herbaria Still 1
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 2
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 3
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 4
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 5
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 6
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 7
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Herbaria Still 8
Herbaria still, courtesy of Leandro Listorti
Date
2023 September
Subtitle
Andrea Bordoli reviews Leandro Listorti, Herbaria, Argentina/Germany, 2022, 83 min, Spanish/German
Type
microreview
Author / Publisher
Andrea Bordoli for NewsLibrary
Author Info

Andrea Bordoli’s research and practice lies at the intersection between anthropological theory, film and visual art. He is currently pursuing a research-creation PhD in Media Anthropology at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Language

English

Also published here

Newsletter No. 57

Instagram @sarn_switzerland

Reviewed Publication

Herbaria, Leandro Listorti, Argentina/Germany, 2022, 83 min, Spanish/German (English Subtitles)

HERBARIA is the title of Argentinian filmmaker, programmer, and archivist Leandro Listorti’s second feature film. The film premiered in 2022 at Nyon’s Visions du Réel International Documentary Festival, where he won the Special Jury Prize in the festival’s Burning Lights competition.

Listorti’s moving image film invites the viewers into two intertwined archives: botanical archives – the scientific name for which is herbaria – and analogue film archives. Who decides what to keep, and what to leave out? How and in which context is the editing work in archives done?

Reflecting on the materialities constituting the archived media, such as their vulnerability to time and the action of biological agents, Listorti’s delicate work proposes a sensorial invitation to engage with these man-made yet very organic archives, both confronted in similar ways by an era of loss and ecological disturbance. In addition, elaborating on the personal, intimate, and connected histories underlying conservation policies and efforts, the film invites us to wonder about what eludes categories and scientific taxonomies; these monsters that might actually be warning us humans of something happening or yet to come.