Managed Retreat
Managed Retreat
2018
Which new relationships between human and nature emerge as a result of climate change?
Credit: Nathan Kensinger
Historically seen, the relationship between human and nature in industrial nations has always been characterized by subjugation and exploitation. Humans are skilled in infiltrating ecosystems and mining their resources. How can we imagine a future relationship in which there is nothing left to exploit?
The short film Managed Retreat by video artist and photographer Nathan Kensinger ties on global coastal management strategies. It depicts the first official New York project, which started relocating the human habitat to the inland in order to restore natural areas for the benefit of the ecosystem and stop further coastal erosion.
The documentary illustrates cycles of death and resurrection in Oakwood Beach, Ocean Breeze and Graham Beach. In 2012 those districts were destroyed by hurricane Sandy and since then further construction has been prohibited. The viewer becomes a witness of nature slowly returning and reconquering those areas, challenging us to rethink our impact on nature.
Managed Retreat was filmed between 2015 to 2017 and focuses on the process of demolition, rehabilitation, and replanting. Buildings are replaced by wildflowers and humans by wildlife. The viewer is torn between the joy of the growing social awareness for the environment and being confronted with the horror of the scale of their centuries-long exploitation.
The film program is presented in partnership with Imagine Science Films (ISF), New York, an international platform spreading new and experimental works at the interface between science and film. www.imaginesciencefilms.org
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