Wrought

by Anna Sigrithur & Joel Penner
With time lapse videography of rotting in action, Wrought creates an intimate, immersive world where decay can be beautiful, tender and even surprisingly human.
2022  ·  22m  ·  Canada
About the Film

“In a world obsessed with growth, we deny ourselves the tender possibilities of decay.” Wrought begins with that universal moment of disappointment: despite all best efforts, our food has gone bad! But instead of turning away in disgust, Wrought zooms in, approaching the usually hidden world of decay with curiosity and stunning time lapse photography. Spoiling dinner leftovers bloom with successions of geometric bacterial colonies. Yeasts churn and froth in the torrential flood of juice leaking from a decaying melon. Cheese is slowly engulfed by carpets of furry, green mould. But, the narrator asks, would rot by any other name still reek?

In answering this question, Wrought unfolds a larger story about the ways humans create categories for the world around us that can be limiting. It explores (and challenges) terms like spoil, ferment, compost and rot as it coaxes audiences to decompose these categories and their associated binaries: self and other, human and non-human, and nature and culture. As the film title implies, we are all forged out of the relationships that transgress such binaries; we are all, indeed, wrought.

Upcoming Screenings

Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!

Director
Anna Sigrithur, Joel Penner
Producer
Anna Sigrithur, Joel Penner
Cinematographer
Anna Sigrithur, Joel Penner
Editor
Joel Penner
Sound
Anna Sigrithur, Joel Penner
About the Director

Joel Penner

Joel Penner
Joel Penner

Joel Penner is a filmmaker who uses computer scanners to create timelapses of plants and fungi decaying, with the goal of inspiring people to see the unfathomable beauty of everyday existence. He has made numerous art films set to music using this unique footage. He has also hosted multiple artistic/ educational video presentations highlighting the extraordinary worlds of common weeds, Canadian mosses, as well as conifers and symbiotic fungi. He has had showings of his work in both Canada and Europe. He currently does after-school programming and teaches photography with youth in Winnipeg’s inner city.

 

Anna Sigrithur

Anna Sigrithur is writer, artist, food researcher and cook whose work explores food cultures, food preservation, fermentation, microbiology, sensory perception and human/non-human relationships. In 2015 she interned at Noma’s Nordic Food Lab in Copenhagen where she produced a season podcasts for Nordic Food Lab Radio about living with Sami reindeer herders, and most recently produced two seasons of food history podcasts for the Oxford Food Symposium in the UK. She is also an amateur perfumer, who, alongside of developing Wrought, has been experimenting with creating microbially-based perfumes.

 

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