Artists Choice Screening: Feet in Water, Head on Fire

Sukaina Kubba has selected Feet in Water, Head on Fire as one of her Artist's Choice Screenings.

Terra Long’s feature debut is a breath-taking experimental documentary portrait of California’s Coachella Valley that is both anchored in the specifics of place and community, while freely exploring the limits of cinematic time and space. 

Shaped by seismic forces of the San Andreas Fault, the Coachella Valley is home to an agricultural community built around the date palm trees introduced to the region in the early 1900s. Today, the land and its people face combined threats from economic upheaval, US immigration policy and climate change. With an elliptical grace, Long’s film spans vast expanses of geological time and sweeping desert landscapes into extreme close-ups of the region’s plant and insect life, where microscopic views of cellular biology trace intimate stories of human connection. 

Beautifully shot on 16mm film and featuring hand-processing techniques that incorporate plants native to the Coachella Valley into the film, Long’s documentary is grounded in place even on a material level.

This screening will be introduced by Dr. Jessica Mulvogue, Lecturer in Film Studies at University of St Andrews.