Mountain Flesh

In the shadow of the Alps, a village endures – but for how much longer? The foundations of its institutions are cracking, and the rocky facades of neighboring mountains are slowly but surely crumbling away. The ground rumbles occasionally, when giant boulders from the peaks tumble down the slope and crash not far from the houses.
 
The framing choices, pitting these towering rock giants against the small human silhouettes populating the valleys, could not be clearer: the balance of power between Man and Nature does not favor the former. All that remains is to come to terms, so to speak, with one's own powerlessness.
 
On one side, surveyors tirelessly scrutinize the terrain and catalog its many variations. On the other, worshippers gather beneath a church's cracked roof, praying for their village to be saved. These two rituals, though distinct in form, stem from the same desire: to preserve some semblance of control and structure in the face of a landscape and climate bound to transform. These human silhouettes thus seek to anchor their existence through familiar and repeated gestures. The rocks will keep rolling down the slopes, and the infrastructures will keep weakening – but by persisting in their own rituals, whether scientific or spiritual, these inhabitants bear witness to a humble, almost derisory resistance against Nature's overwhelming power.

Jason Todd
Programmer and filmmaker