II. Film screening ‘Scenes of Extraction’

Join us for the screening of Scenes of Extraction, a film by Sanaz Sohrabi (Canada/Iran, 2023, OL with English subtitles), followed by an online discussion with the filmmaker. This screening is part of the film series Projecting Post-Extractivism.

Scenes of Extraction (43 min, Canada/Iran, 2023) traces the historical and visual imbrication of the camera and the infrastructures of oil exploration in Iran. Drawing on materials from the British Petroleum archives, the essay film reconstructs how geological expeditions conducted between 1901 and 1951 produced both technical knowledge and colonial representations that extended from the Iranian oil belt to British concessions in Papua and Southeast Asia.

By weaving together archival documents, amateur footage, and newly generated CGI maps, the film transforms these materials into a speculative media archaeology of extractive vision. It parses the history of “Reflection Seismography,” an oil exploration method heavily tested in the region despite its destructive and uncertain nature. By exposing this technical legacy, which remains the backbone of the global energy complex and is still used in fracking and deep-sea mining today, the work reveals the coupling of visual and extractive technologies that shaped imperial landscapes and their enduring ecological aftermath. It further considers how archives operate as instruments of dispossession yet remain vital sites for remediating cultural memoryand imagining post-extractive futures.

Considering the ongoing war by the US and Israel against Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine, we acknowledge the conditions under which this event takes place. Although the program centers on extraction and colonial visual regimes rather than the war directly, we see these histories as inseparable from the geopolitical and ecological crises shaping Iran today.

The film screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker Sanaz Sohrabi, who will attend online, led by Salomé Lopes Coelho.

The event will be concluded with a reception.

Attendance is free of charge, but registration is required.
Please register by sending an email to utrechtmemorystudies@uu.nl.