Film Screening: a seed a deer a seed

A seed a deer a seed (2023) is a short film by Marianne Hoffmeister Castro that examines the conservation efforts at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (Austin, TX). The film threads together stories and modalities of care and management of local ecosystems while bringing forth the alliances and challenges between plant, animal and human communities. What are the ecological alliances that need to be sustained in time? How long can the land management efforts continue to preserve balance on the local ecosystems? Who decides who needs to keep on living or who needs to be eradicated? By formulating these questions throughout the film, a seed a deer a seed becomes a meeting place to reflect on the human impact on managed landscapes but also on the entanglements with vegetal lives and nonhuman animals as agents in these conservation efforts.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker and Rachel Reeb, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Tree News is a newsletter and event series produced by artists Erin Mallea and Paper Buck (Pittsburgh & Philadelphia, PA). Tree News focuses on tree and forest stories as entry points into discussions of environmental justice, ecological orientations in art practice, and climate change adaptation. Tree News profiles trees, people, places and projects to serve as a platform to share resources, build relationships, and develop deeper understandings of the world around us.

Touchstone Cinema is the curatorial project of moving-image artists Inbar Hagai & Rebecca Shapass. The ongoing screening series is dedicated to facilitating discourse around artworks that challenge and push the cinematic form.