Thursday November 5 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Q&A with Daniel Bachman following the screening.
Witness trees are living beings who have experienced incredible historical events beyond the lifespan of any living person. Over the course of two years, Daniel Bachman interviewed 16 of these remarkable trees in Virginia using a biodata sonifcation device built by Philadelphia artist/engineer @electricityforprogress tying their lived experience to Virginia’s deep histories of settler colonialism, brutalizing racial hierarchy, extractive capitalism, and subsequent outcomes of contemporary climate breakdown.
The result is a nearly two hour long album, and full length documentary film, that takes the participant through these intersections of history, power, people, and place. From the eroding beaches of the Chesapeake Bay and its former dynastic plantation grounds, through the Civil War battlefields, old growth groves, and river bottoms of the Piedmont, to the peaks of the Shenandoah Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, the trees speak for themselves.
Truly all trees bear witness. As they live and grow alongside us, they experience the everyday experience of human and non human life, as well as our most cataclysmic moments in history. The Witness Tree attempts to include not only the lesser-known historic narratives but also acknowledge the effects of climate breakdown currently accelerating on Earth and the trees that are living through these defining experiences of our time.
Daniel Bachman is an artist, musician, and independent scholar primarily interested in the folk histories of Virginia. Bachman has released fourteen full length records since 2011, and toured extensively internationally and throughout the US, garnering wide acclaim. In recent years Bachman has abandoned a rigorous touring schedule to explore multimedia projects centered on Virginia’s long history of settler colonialism and how it relates to contemporary climate breakdown. He currently lives in Madison County, Virginia, with his partner Aldona Dye and their cat, Little Baby.