Films

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This page gathers films we have done in our research. The films explore different aspects of urban ecology and situated ways of knowing. The films can be viewed in the order that they appear or in any other order.

One Table Two Elephants (2018, 84 min), a cinematic ethnography created by Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson.
Go here to read more about the film and project. For teaching with the film go here. Scholarly reference: Von Heland, Jacob, and Henrik Ernstson (2018) One Table Two Elephants (84 minutes, Cinematic Ethnography/Documentary Film, Colour, HD, Dolby 5:1), World Premiere in Competition at CPH:DOX 2018, 20 March 2018, Copenhagen. The Situated Ecologies Platform: Stockholm & Cape Town.

Killing Aliens Everyday (2018, 16 min), a short experimental film created by Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson, exploring the more-than-human perspective of being on the receiving end of violence in efforts to construct a wholesome, coherent inside. Scholarly references: Von Heland, Jacob, and Henrik Ernstson (2016, 16 min) Killing Aliens Everyday: Otherness as Constitutive of an Organized Inside, A Film-Based Experiment. Stories of the Anthropocene Festival, 26-29 Oct 2016, KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory, Rachel Carson Centre, and CHE UW-Madison, screened at Teater Reflex, Stockholm. The Situated Ecologies Platform: Stockholm.

The Lindeka: How a City Ate a Book (2023, 62 min, SVA Film & Media Festival) is the second cinematic ethnography on postcolonial ecologies from South African cities by Jacob von Heland and Henrik Ernstson, this time in collaboration with Anita Mkizwana and Philisiwe Twinjstra. Filmed in eThekwini-Durban, this essay film deals with ownership, pollution, and active colonial remains to create a cinematic and intriguing position to speak into our global environmental crisis. The film was selected in competition at SVA Film and Media Festival, Toronto, Canada, 15-19 November 2023 at the Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) and Annual Meeting of American Anthropological Association (AAA) competing as an “ethnofiction” for Best Film and the Jean Rouch Award. Follow the SVA link above for a synposis of the film. The film will be released under a Creative Commons license for teaching and public viewing in 2024. Scholarly reference: Von Heland, Jacob, and Henrik Ernstson (2023) The Lindeka: When a City Ate a Book (64 minutes, Cinematic Ethnography/Documentary Film, Colour, HD, Dolby 5:1), World Premiere in Competition at SVA Film and Media Festival, Toronto, Canada, 15-19 November 2023 at the Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) and Annual Meeting of American Anthropological Association (AAA). The Situated Ecologies Platform: Stockholm.

Blocos Urbanism (2023, 24 min), a research-based film exploring how oil is turned into housing and infrastructure in Luanda, Angola. Created by Jens Ergon and Henrik Ernstson and written together with Ricardo Cardoso, Jia-Ching Chen and Wangui Kimari, The GROWL Research team. Scholarly reference: Ergon, Jens, and Henrik Ernstson, dirs. 2023. Blocos Urbanism: From Oil to Infrastructure in Luanda. The Situated Ecologies Platform: Stockholm. https://vimeo.com/859728871

Turning Livlihoods to Rubbish? (2019, 33 min) deals with urban waste and its management. Made by Yvette Kruger in collaboration with researchers Nate Millington and Henrik Ernstson, the film approaches the contested processes of extracting value out of waste in urban South Africa from multiple perspectives, including voices from municipal waste managers, private entrepreneurs, academics, and formally employed and self-employed waste workers. Suitable for teaching online and face-to-face. Scholarly reference: Kruger, Yvette, Nate Millington, and Henrik Ernstson, dirs. (2019). Turning Livelihoods to Waste? Situated Urban Political Ecologies: Stockholm & Cape Town. https://vimeo.com/400984541.