ANIMIST UNCONSCIOUS
Director: Zion Estrada and Emanuel Admassu
Producer: Zion Estrada
Premiere Status: North American Premiere
Screenwriter: Zion Estrada
Cinematographer: Kyle Chattam
Cast: Vir Shah LiDar Scanner , Bae Bae Kumi Score
Release Year: 2025
Language: English (United States)
Subtitle: English (United States)
Country: United States
ANIMIST UNCONSCIOUS draws on Harry Garuba’s concept of animist materialism to complicate the layered histories of displacement in Metro Atlanta, from Indigenous stewardship to Black placemaking after the plantation. Created by Admassu and Estrada, the film positions the Weelaunee Forest and Atlanta’s built environments as animate protagonists vibrating with ecological memory, care, performance, and belonging. Through LiDAR scans and an immersive soundscape by Kumi “Bae Bae” James, the work conjures a landscape where diaspora, environment, and ancestral presence remain in constant relation.