Malena Szlam

Malena Szlam is a Chilean-born filmmaker and visual artist based in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal. Working across experimental cinema, installation and photography, her practice explores the intersections of geopolitics, natural phenomena and embodied perception. Through analogue film processes, she investigates the affective dimensions of landscape, with a focus on geology, earth sciences and volcanology. She has collaborated with composers and scientists including Lawrence English and Clive Oppenheimer, creating soundscapes that emerge from the Earth’s crust, oceans and atmosphere. Her work has been presented at major international film festivals and museums such as Toronto International Film Festival, MoMA, New Directors/New Films, Cinéma du Réel and International Film Festival Rotterdam. Her award-winning film ALTIPLANO (2018) received the Best Experimental Short Film prize at Melbourne International Film Festival. Szlam’s work has been exhibited at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark), and is included in MoMA’s permanent collection.