Cosmographies : Film Screening and Q+A - Dr Juan Francisco Salazar

This event will feature a preview screening of Dr Juan Salazar's latest film, Cosmographies followed by audience question time.

Cosmographies is a 93-minute hybrid film that draws from speculative fiction, observational and poetic documentary, Indigenous futurisms, and Indigiqueer approaches to weave together cosmic stories about the struggle for environmental justice against ongoing forms of extractivism and ecological ruin in the Atacama Desert as an allegory against ongoing plans to colonize the Moon and Mars, where Māori astrobiologist Xuê Noon finds solace in 2051. Directed by Juan Salazar in collaboration with performance artist Victoria Hunt and the Lickanantay community of Toconao , Chile, the film is an output of an ARC Future Fellowship grant (2020-2024) and a sequel to Salazar's earlier film Nightfall on Gaia (2015).

Juan Francisco Salazar is a Chilean interdisciplinary researcher, author and documentary filmmaker whose academic and creative work explore the coupled dynamics of social-ecological change and is underpinned by a collaborative ethos across the arts, sciences and activism. He is a Professor of Communication and Media in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and a member of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS).

Western Sydney University has been named number one in the world in the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings, topping the world's leading university sustainability ranking for an unprecedented three years in a row. This is the only global performance measure that assesses universities against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event series aims to celebrate and promote this #1 ranking, complementing work being undertaken across the University as part of its Sustainability and Resilience Decadal Strategy 2030 .

Disclaimer:  This is a private screening for the WSU community.