Sayarii Menassa Valiente

Culture and Nature

Information, in itself, is not knowledge (…) knowledgeability consists, rather, in the

In class we have discussed multiple times the concept of enskilment, how doesn’t matter
how much information you reunite, you cannot know how to dance by reading
enciclopedias, you gotta start dancing! Right? In short, There are very few things that can
make us realize… than movies. Having things shown to us is perhaps the only way we can
get in contact with how a phenomenon is experienced by others in the world, in that way
we can relate the knowledge from what we have been learning in the academical texts or
papers with actual situations lived by actual people in situated, fixed environments. Similar
to the quote of Haraway “everybody belongs somewhere, everybody comes from
somewhere”, the movies were an open space to get in touch with the depth of these topics,
to see the issues materialized in particular bodies, those of the people, those of the non-
human, those of the environment, and experience the complexity of these issues… I think
in all of them I could realize the fact that in contradiction with the ecological discourse that
advocates for a protectionist style towards nature, what’s ill is our sentient ability towards
the environment, our capacity to create bonds with each other, with the little insect that
visits our kitchen every now and then, with the snow below our feet, with our neighbor,
with that one person sitting next to us in the train. We perceive ourselves as separated from
all of them and that is why we become egoistic, that’s we think that what we do doesn’t
have any influence in other people whether close or hundreds of miles away, but the truth is
far from that, in the movies we could see how things that are so apparently separated from
each other are influencing each other in one or other way. In this short essay I want to
reflect about… this and this and this commenting on five movies watched throughout the
course: Honeyland (2019), Wolves at borders (2020), Samuel in the Clouds (2016),
Leviathan (2012) and Trashed (2019).
It's very difficult to separate the science from the politics,
The good thing about the movies I think is that they don’t necessarily offer a solution, in
fact, at least how we’re thinking about it it doesn’t seem that climate change has a definite
solution, edgework: the movies are here to ask relevant questions. as long as we keep
seeing ourselves to one another and towards the environment as something separated, it has
no purpose about thinking about these policies because they will be completely insufficient.
The problem is our system, the materialistic, utilitarian way of seeing and approaching the
other, the environment, that’s causing so much harm from small to huge scale .
What I liked about the movies is the role of silence and contemplation, those where not
explanatory, there was not a clear idea of what wanted to be shown or explained to the
spectator, but an exploration of the senses, of time, of times different from that of
traditional human narratives and anthropocentred, we could see the times of the fish, the
times of a pig, the times of the vast reserve ofo petroleum, how it roars, how it cries, how it
breaths…
There is no “clear” message or symbolic vehicle as Ingold may say, but something that’s
connected to the world that speaks to us in all languages. Something that destabilizes us,
that makes us think, that makes us reflect or feel, either boredom, or anxiety, or pain,
These are the powers of the movies that unlike the academical texts you can see stuff
happening to people, in fixed environments in real places, with names and nationalities,
with a defined landscape. Like this, those ideas, that knowledge, is situated, is transformed
into a real experience of you as a spectator consuming that content. And is more democratic
in the sense that more people have access to it as opposed to the few people that may have
the intellectual capital to understand an academic paper.
Thinking about this complexity is necessary in the sense that we need to combat the
sheerness of ecological policies that just demands us to “protect” the environment.
At the end I also think that movies present the perfect opportunity to realize the conjunction
of cinema or visual medium with the theoretical fields as a medium to reunite people from
different career backgrounds. Connection of theoretical knowledge with sensory images.
There is no clear solution but is good that this brings the question into the table.
Movies I wanna mention: Honeyland, wolves at borders, Samuel in the clouds, Leviathan,
Trashed
Choose a topic and mention more than 3 movies
The movies were intriguing, … yjdjdjdj
Connection of theoretical knowledge with sensory images
More democratic in the sense that being a motion picture more people have access to it
instead of the few people with t he intellectual capital to understand an academic paper.
See in real life situations
Experience another world
Sensitive look on this topic, on real humans that go through these situations and the
complexity of them… in the text you just read it as almost something almost abstract but
then you see it actually embodied in someone’s body
You can perceive the relationships of all the involved creatures… both human and non-
human…. Mutual relationships, it’s about integrity and interdependency

Wolves affected their behaviour due to human action. By leaving when they felt they could
be killed and returning once they realized it was safe to come back. We shape environment
as environment shapes us.
Information in itself is NOT KNOWLEDGE.
Knowledgeability consists in the capacity to situate information and understand its
meaning. We develop this capacity by having things shown to us (Ingold)

One needs to experience by oneself the objects or features of the physical world, like this
we construct knowledge.
Discover oneself through watching the movie, is not much a passive action rather than a
proactive one

All inclusive – every wish is to be fulfilled, appreciate nature from distanace without
getting too involved
Honeyland – take just what needed from nature. Problem is that this is difficult to do on a
massive scale and when you gotta reach certain levels of productivity at certain dates
Wolves at borders – ecology is also an ideology and needs to be thought critically.
Protecting wolve’s lifes affects the cattleman and people who live comfortably in the cities
have no right to judge them as cruel. If the government is not implied how can they just
rely the responsibility of caring the cattle to the cattleman? It’d be absurdly expensive to
build fenses effective enough, plus, it’d remind of some war era by making the lands
divided, it’d uglify the countryside and eliminate sense of freedom.
We can “appreciate” nature. But who? For who?
Samuel in the clouds - how the environment is connected to one’s identity, to one’s way of
living, to one’s beliefs…
Gunda -
Leviathan – a time and space of the fish, all living beings included not centered on the
human as a protagonist, a system that is cruel towards everyone
Trashed – how hard it is to recycle…
When I grow up I want to be alive -

These movies helped me widen my spectrum of

Honeyland
In this movie we follow a woman whose livelihood depends on bees. What this movie
made me think is that not just the woman was not taking no more than what was necessary
for her survival from the bees but that she also developed sort of a friendship with them.
But it’s hard to do large-scale.
Samuel in the clouds
In this movie Samuel is a tour guide in the mountains of … in Perú, he feels his life is
meaningless without his connection with the mountain and even though it is troublesome to
keep working here he somehow keeps going frequently to take care of the business. The
environment is connected to one’s identity, to one’s way of living and one’s beliefs, one
cannot live separated from that because it’s literally like losing a part of oneself.
Wolves at borders
Difficult to separate science from politics, everyone I defending their own ideology and the
fundamental naturalist is talking about we must protect the wolves but what about the
farmers? This is the problem of seeing each other separated from nature, we need to find a
way to think in conjunction with and not separately because there is no way that nature is
pure wilderness separated from human activity.
Trashed
Here too we can see how it is difficult to recycle because there are some complex materials
that are not easily separated from others and also companies are not likely to buy recycled
plastic, or not heavily damaged one so it’s almost nonsense to put the blame on people,
what is damaged is this whole system we need to find new materials most likely or life as
we know it today with very convenient materials needs to be sacrificed but that needs the
help not just of individuals but governments as well, it’s not an easy process.
Leviathan
This movie gives us a glimpse of the … industry in united states. A complete unfair system
towards both the animals and the workers. An ethnography of what takes to