THE UTOPIAN
A film by Nico Muñoz & Frederick Bernas
featuring Joaquín Fargas
A solar-powered robotic caterpillar crawls across the arid Altiplano, miraculously harvesting precious droplets of moisture from a barren landscape – seemingly devoid of life.
It’s a dystopian future vision that Joaquín Fargas is on a mission to prevent, with quirky inventions that belie a serious message: We need to stop destroying our vital natural resources, before it’s too late.
His innovative work breaks boundaries between disciplines, in a way some people struggle to understand; his far-fetched ideas are often spurned by the worlds of culture and science alike.
But his perseverance serves as a clarion call for us to confront daunting challenges with creativity – “because if we don’t do anything, we already know the results,” says the artist.
THE UTOPIAN draws upon exhaustive access to follow Fargas on his outlandish quest of poetic protest, taking in performative installations on stunning Antarctic islands and Bolivian salt flats – where vibrant ecosystems have been ravaged by mining in the manic global lithium rush, fueled by surging demand for electric vehicles.
Technological progress is driving growth and development, but does it have to be a Faustian pact which damages our planet beyond repair?
CONTACT
Nico Muñoz — info@elmanofilms.com.ar
Frederick Bernas — mail@frederickbernas.com
Adam Elliott — adam@cminusproductions.com