Convento

Dutch kinetic artist Christiaan Zwanikken resurrects the deceased local wildlife by reanimating the skeletal remains with servomotors and robotic engineering. He breeds these new species in a 400 yr. old monastery in a village in Portugal that has been restored from ruins, to become his family’s home, an artists’ workshop and nature preserve. Filmed entirely in Portugal, _Convento_’s camera is almost perpetually in motion, tracking through the monastery and its landscape, transporting the audience into the daily lives of these extraordinary people. Each family member simultaneously nourishes the coexistence of art and nature, documented through a series of connected micro-narratives. –SXSW