Punk documentary about queer Aboriginal and Indigenous artists and their inventions of the “good life”.
Here you will meet artists who have remained in their Indigenous communities or have rediscovered them for themselves, and are active outside and beyond the Western art institutions: masters whose outstanding teachings on light are as precise as any mathematics available to the Western world; Aboriginal cultural workers who emancipated themselves solely through the power of their art; Amazonian curanderas who work miracles despite the shaman business, and others.
- Editing: Samurai Sword Marc Müller
- Essay Joulia Strauss with the Magic Sword Maestra & Maestro Johanna Di Blasi and Luca Di Blasi
- Dramaturgy consultant: Master of Rituals Thomas Oberender
- Text editing and translation: Language Curandera Tania Hron and Transmission Shaman Steven Corcoran
- Film Music: Dream Modulator Robert Lippok
- Sound mixing and restauration: Daniel Nentwig Dan Ra-Son
- Producer: Rainbow Snake André Sauer
After the worldwide protests around 2012, we artists took responsibility into our own hands. Continuing the reLOVEution begun, we started to forge worlds worth living in. This is the spirit in which I called Avtonomi Akadimia into being as an educational assembly and perma artwork in one. It is situated in the gardens where Plato taught almost two and a half thousand years ago.
Here, in the capital of today’s European crisis, artists, scientists and activists from endangered living environments and smog-filled western metropolises, have come together to reconceive the educational system. On the founding site of Weste rn thought, we have fought to overcome the one-sidedness of western epistemologies and connect art with Gaia. Under the sign of threat to the “Critical Zone” – that thin and vulnerable layer of land and air where all life takes place – I sought professors for the Avtonomi Akadimia. Cognizant of the contradiction involved in my taking long-distance flights to meet people who really know what land-ing is all about, I met with some so-called Indigenous people.
I dedicate this film to the hundreds of assassinated Indigenous climate activists who have fought for their and our living spaces. The victims of this struggle cannot see this film. But they are with us, in knowledge. Now, please all take a breath. This is the air for which they gave their lives on the front line in Australia, Asia, Latin America and Siberia for us.
We are traveling from knowledge-rich island to knowledge-rich island, with me playing for you on an ancient Greek lyre, while we rewrite the Odyssey from a siren’s perspective. My experiences I have framed in words with help from the author Johanna Di Blasi and the philosopher Luca Di Blasi, both professors at the Avtonomi Akadimia. As also is Marc Müller, who skilfully helped me to weave the sheer profusion of material into a film.
