2355 – Scavengers Reign (animation mini series 2023)

timespace coordinates: planet Vesta in the far future when interstellar cargo ships roam the galaxy

adult animated science fiction drama television series created by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner (here is an interview)

Probably this is one of the most expected pieces of SF this year. And it delivers and is excellent on several accounts, contrasting with most of what gets labeled as SF nowadays. There is no lack of visually stunning cinematic works that seem to lack something – be it plotwise, involvement, or character development or are bound to repeat some form of techno-orientalist cliche with super-advanced yet missing Asians.

Is there any type of exoplanetary SF possible today when most of the future visions are somehow retro vintage SF golden age or very derivative? This was contradicted at the end of 2023 by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner with a new independent, daring SF “eco-gothic” SF series production for the Max video-on-demand subscription channel that emanated out of the Californian animation industry. Scavengers Reign has somehow demonstrated that not everything is being consumed by the Disney Studios monster. Although I doubt there’s life after you fall into the D sarlacc’s capacious stomach.

Scavenger Reign stands closer to the European animation school and in particular the French comics and animation. It oozes Métal Hurlant and René Laloux with the geometric forests, panoramic vistas and its changeling alien ecosystems. But there is certainly also an anime/manga aspect – or the traces of the best of anime and manga. There is a touch of weird naturalism, of eerie transformations, and of horrific metamorphosis, particularly if one thinks in terms of the Katsuhiro Otomo’s masterpiece Akira from 1982 which was stunning for its realism and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga (not anime!) by Hayao Miyazaki. Biological genomes get hijacked, and the extended virome that permeates alien planets trafficks information across the species barrier. Everything is inter-species, everything sporulates, and telekinetic parasitism abounds (something close to the rove beetle eating baby ants while the ants think it is one of them – thx Ben Woodard for reminding me of this crazy true fable), but also the dance of co-evolution.

It is also the first US SF product (with help from South Korean animators – Studio JDD) – and it is no accident that it is an animation piece that finally does justice to some authors that have never been adapted for the screen such as the exoplanetary works of Joan Lyn Slonczewski (The Children Star) or only partially so – Jeff VanderMeer (particularly Borne and The Strange Bird two of my favorite pieces of new weird & postapocalyptic post- biopunk SF).

Otherness participates here at every level – from hallucinations of even the most common kind, say your lover’s voice and image that is being somehow puppeteered by something really different (do not think Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris), a plethora of really alien creatures using human carriers via their feelings and thoughts, but these thoughts and feelings somehow animating the alien critters as well in return. To affect means to be also affected (thinking here of Deleuze, but also Whithead’s Critique of Pure Affect). Also, we should not expect alien sentience to conform to our technological imaginary – it can be really very much a creature of strange and lowly appetites, irrespective of its extra sensorial powers. So you could really imagine the corporate alien slugs from Charles Stross’s Accelerando leaving sticky marks on Scavengers Reign’s world.

It is also one animation that takes into account our new scientific knowledge about species being as complex communities, interplays, or choreographies of genes or societies of genes of entirely different species. This knowledge constantly reshaped our understanding of what an individual being is or offers us continuous glimpses into how tight-knit such relationships are or how human agency or artificial agency dissolves or is being constantly rerouted within these webs of agency, non-agency, and misplaced intentionality. Parasitism is pervasive but it is also just one expression of the complexity and mutualism of such an ecosystem – it’s fleas upon fleas all the way down and up. There’s also a bizarre in-betweenness, much on this planet actually thrives on cross-fertilization with non-alien, human intruders and their creations (robots). There is a great scene where Azi and Levi (a human and robot partnership that survived the crash of the Demeter 277 cargo ship) who was cultivating and gardening new earthly gardens – Azi the robot is itself a walking garden. Inside its machinery there is some kind of new hybrid semiconductor with slime molds as a partner (it seems to me), maybe something close to unconventional computing is aiming at since some time.

imdb // wiki

2076 – Truffle Hunters (2020 documentary)

“Deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, a handful of men, seventy or eighty years old, hunt for the rare and expensive white Alba truffle-which to date has resisted all of modern science’s efforts at cultivation.” (imdb)

Directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw

Truffle hunters of Perigord (France) in the 19th c on a Liebig meat extract flavored with truffle aroma

This must be one of the most delightful documentaries of these last years. The imagery and the people are just a marvel. We are definitely living in a time where an omnipresent mushrooms mycelium grows unseen through books, exhibitions, documentaries and pop cultural artefacts. Mushrooms have acquired a very special place in our current dead-end situation. Fungi are showing us that even if we rather imagine the end of the world than that of capital, mushroom will continue to be part of a world that is long since post-apocalyptic. Mushroom’s unique role as both putrescientific and putrifictional organisms is well documented. In the gaming world. Just take the Super Mushroom booster (Nintendo’s Super Mario series) or indie gaming Botanicula’s Mr Mushroom character. The association of mushrooms with magic are complex and nearly limitless. There is more to mushrooms than meets the eye. There has been a growing increasing recognition of certain invisible (to the eye) presence of mushrooms called mycorrhiza mushrooms that developed over millions of years a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship with the root parts of the plants all over the planet (that under special conditions can turn parasitical). Mushrooms with their filaments and thread-like connectivity play an important role in the Wood Wide Web. The knowledge about this unseen interwebbed world under our very feet has been growing steadily. I deeply recommend an in-depth history of mutualism in the life sciences – how symbiotic theories evolved, a history written by Canadian historian of microbiology, evolutionary theory, microbiome and biology – Jan Sapp. His books have been a guiding light to me, helping me recognize the value of minor counter-currrents or redesicovered under-currents existing in parrallel (such as those employing the concept of symbiosis).

There are documentaries like the Magic of Mushrooms (2014) or Fantastic Fungi (2019). There is bestsellers such Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World: the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins or the succesfull Entangled Life: How Mushrooms make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Gigantic forests of bio-remediating or myco-remediating poisonous mushrooms are central to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga (check this great essay by Gregory Marks here).

There are even SF series such as the Mycelial Network in Star Trek Discovery described as “a discrete subspace domain containing the mycelium, or roots, of the fungus Prototaxites stellaviatori” (Prototaxites the alien fictional mushroom is based on an actual gigantic fossil mushroom or lichen-like organism that existed once in the Devonian age).

Many species of mushrooms have acquired growing relevance, others have always been considered a rarity – to be traded, consumed or valued. The truffle (both its alba – white and black strands) stand apart as a highly treasures biocultural organism. Do not think they are protected in the sense rare species are. They stand at the center of networks linking regional traditional mushroom hunters and their companion species – and five star restaurant and conneisseurs that are willing to pay incredible prices. The truffle combines an unspectacular exterior with an ineffable strong smell (there are no known medicinal proprieties identified).

there is smell testing ritual at potential truffle auction pieces for those interested

Just this smell makes highly attractive to both humans and other animals, a lure for our desires, trophic chains and economic speculation. A smell is mostly appreciated with that most irrational organ – the nose. Truffles are also multispecies vectors, they attract both humans, yet their main carriers and spore dispersal vehicles are pigs (and because of us – dogs). Oil flavored with truffles is enough to change a whole dish. Motovun white truffle (Tuber Magnatum L.) flavored honey liquor from Croatia flavored with just a hint of a truffle (of which I had some unforgettable stinky shots) considered a local Dalmatian speciality.

there are many kinds of truffle flavored trash foods

Anything with truffle flavor (even chips or cheese) is considered a delicacy for that matter. Everything regarding truffles has become highly competitive (with a growing black market). These underground unspectacular lumps (fruiting bodies of a particular mushroom) advertise their underground existence in order to get some quality dispersal by mammals such as pigs that find it irresistible. This smell is hard to describe (and especially impossible to assess what it actually feels like for a pig) – but it turns out to be a certain bio-mimicry, imitating certain bodily odors of mammals, especially because it is quite earthy hormonal perspiration-like – musky with deep heavy notes. Although supposedly aphrodisiac it has never been proven so.

these seemingly banal clumps can garner the most egregious prices

Here is a unique humourous documentary about the lives of these incredible 70 or 80 years old Italian truffle hunters and their unique and dangerous relationship with their prized truffle hunting dogs that they would never ever part with (even when offered large sums). There is also a very sad part to this story -as everywhere the globalized capitalist expansion of markets catering to the luxury taste and high incomes have transformed truffle hunting from a hobby and pleasurable (if always profitable and slightly protective and conflictual) livelihood in northern Italy (Piemonte) into something really mortal where both companion species and the human caretakers are under threat.

There are more killings of hunters and poison baiting of dogs than ever before. It is wonderful that these people, normally weary of strangers and highly protective of their knowhow and favorite patch – have allowed the filmmakers to follow them in the field.

Italy being Italy there also lots of musical numbers

There is an increase in demand and land-grabbing of territories and lands and constant pressure to acquire truffle rich territories – as truffles become ever more popular. This is the background for this documentary – importantly it is not just about truffle hunting although this incredible obsessive activity is central to it. There is also a lot of heartfelt beauty of the surroundings, walks, friendships and a peek into lives of completely dedicated people (almost always men). What is important is that they do not make so much money, the money incentive is just something on the side giving a little spice to their lives.

in the intimacy of the bathroom

They have not only a special sense for these coveted mushroom prizes but also know a lot about their qualities, characteristics and needs. The documentary follows the entire trophic chain from the field to restaurant and parking lot deals to auction houses, from middlemen to the actual gourmet consumer.

in the intimacy of your plate

imdb

1490 – No Gods, No Masters (2016)

• documentary in 3 parts directed by Ramonet (Tancrède)
• produced by Arte France and Temps Noir

This is the story of Anarchism. By going back over the key events of the last two centuries of social history, the series reveals, for the first time, the origins and destiny of a political trend that has been fighting all gods and all masters for over 150 years.

Who exactly are they? Where do those who have always called themselves anarchists come from and what is their line of thought? Why do we consider their thinking to be confused and their history such a cause for concern?
Featuring previously unseen and forgotten archive footage, in addition to outstanding documentation and accounts by world experts, this documentary series recounts the history of a movement that from Paris to New York, and from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, has constantly imbued the world with its freedom and revolt.

the various directions of socialism and their preferred methods

Long version in French NI DIEU NI MAITRE VERSION LONGUE COMPLETE 3h34

Episode 1 : PART ONE: THE PASSION FOR DESTRUCTION (1840-1906)

Episode 2 : PART TWO: LAND AND FREEDOM (1907-1921)

Episode 3 : PART THREE: IN MEMORY OF THE VAINQUISHED (1922-1945)

While not immediately visible, I’m sure the anarchist movement is always morphing, taking new forms in Romania and has recognized its own rich if misunderstood history. I am sure now it will be not as easily be transformed into a caricature and witch-hunt as during the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, when the majority of TV broadcasting channels immediately rallied behind the repressive powers of the Romanian government, castigating any anti-NATO peaceful protesters as suspicious troublemakers, intruders or labeling them as terrorists or trouble makers in the media.

• 

  Voltairine de Cleyre

It is by no means a homemade documentary, it is made with a budget and also uses a lot of visual documentary and archival material as well as historians and researchers. This is truly another history of known social movements, different from the history as written in manuals or thought at school by the liberal establishment, social democracy and one that clarifies its sometimes embittered relation with communist/Marxist tradition although always in conjunction and often intertwined with it. A history that has to be understood in its relations to the Marxist school of critical thought and to the larger Revolutionary movements worldwide such as the Mexican, the Russian Revolution, the Paris Commune or the Spanish Civil War.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

In an especially bitter chapter it is revisiting the anti anarchist reprisals in Soviet Russia against its former political allies, Russia being one of the historical hotbeds of world anarchism (Bakunin, Kropotkin etc). But it does not stop there – on a map one can see Anarchism springing up everywhere in Italy, Germany, South America, Australia, China, Japan, Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Greece) etc It also gives examples about how much the monarchies and repressive governments of the world felt the anarchist threat – the very first terrorist movement of proportions using bombs and even cars in their exploits. Anarchists invented and experimented with both peaceful means as well as violent ones – propaganda by the deed. They responded to the brutality of police and the armed attacks against the striking masses.

There’s always difficulty to separate the ‘wrong’ from the righteous violence without enacting the policemen in your head, the white/paramilitary Boogaloo bois as bad actors or outside agitators infiltration from the protesters and looting sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Although thconfusion and sometimes overlap, such divisions and labeling only plays into the hand of the sliding grip of ethno-nationalist state power that tries to outlaw Antifa in the US and brand as terrorist the black block. Instead of making a point about the bad apples a better point to make is about the persistence or concept of -propriety in the midst of looting by people who were propriety. Be it the Paris Commune or now during the welcome temporary abolition of property is this to be seen – only during such revolutionary upheavals the debt deeds are being burned, the paperwork goes up in flames and tehnocratic centers of command are being shaken.

In historical times tutorials with artisanal bombs in anarchist mags abounded and the assassinations of presidents and monarchs made them infamous, the Propaganda of the Deed drew both admiration & ire of the public. Interpol was basically founded to counter act the anarchist global threat as perceived during the 1890s. This was the first war on terror before the Bush retoric took it on again. The follow-up was always a regrouping from direction action into the fold of cooperatives and going one more time grassroots and trying to built things from base up.

the Magón brothers

It is also in my knowledge one of the first historical documentaries to accord such an importance to the Mexican Revolution as the first truly anarchist revolution as well as its relationship to Emiliano Zapata. This was also one of its biggest stumbling blocks – the suspicion, common to all world proletariat revolutions against the peasants leading the way, with the possible exception of the Maoist or Ho Chi Minh revolutionary struggles in Asia. Zapata and his peasant Christian anarchist troops got a cold welcome in the city.

Very important the early role of industrial city of Chicago in the early workers rights movement, a proletarian city par excellence, at the epicenter of railway and meat processing industry. Chicago was the place of the Haymarket affair and also had an incredible anarchist press largely conducted by immigrants (including esoterica Jewish Kabbalah bookshops according to Erik Davis), paving the way to the celebrations of the 1st of May.

It’s the best way to learn about the Internationalist dimensions of Anarchism, it’s past popularity and future promise, be it trough its magazines, newspapers and a lot lives lived fully by such historical figures such as:

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre, Peter Kropotkin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Itō Noe, Ōsugi Sakae,

Liu Shifu, Li Shizeng, Sacco and Vanzetti, Ricardo Flores Magón, Buenaventura Durutti, Nestor Makhno and many others. Roughly it is the tumultuous, exalted, incredibly bloody and diverse history from 1840 to 1945 comprising all sort of directions, splinter groups and innovation brought by and with the help of anarchists, be it in the frame of collectivist, mutualist, Propaganda of the Deed, utopian socialism, libertarianism, radical individualism, anti-authoritarianism, nihilism, Russian nihilist movement, anarcho-primitivism, platformism, Christian anarchists, separation of state and church, atheism, eco-anarchism, anarcho-feminism or anarcho-syndicalism.

Peter Kropotkin

I am glad the current and future generation have this documentary to look and learn from. Although there is a lot of stuff happening after 1945 being also complicated by the rise of anarcho-capitalist direction (or coup – depending) lead by Murray Rothbard (1925-1995), but that I guess is the task of another documentary maker.

Dybenko the Soviet emissar and Nestor Makhno

It is mind blowing to realize how wide spread or popular were these ideas around 1900, of gaining or loosing popularity, being transformed or playing a leading role in social movements and emancipatory avant-garde. Truly they are never disappeared and in a sense became permanent taken for granted nowdays. Even if somehow written from the end, these exceptions have never been forgotten, nor completly negated but integrated and absorbed into official history, while their initiators got mostly imprisoned or killed, it also remains a living proof that something like this existed and influenced the most basic things from the strike to the 8h working day or the weekend pause. All these examples of cooperative organization, labor movement, autonomy, of inventing and trying out alternative and experimental anti-authoritarian pedagogy models and lots of practical experiences and historical examples were basically preparing the entire society for a jump into an alternate, future post-capitalist world. Many thanks to Felix P for pointing it out to me.

Buenaventura Durutti