André Silva’s exceptional experimental short film Revelation to the Disembodied will be shown at the New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, February 10, 2023, online for 24 hours and in person at 7 pm. The film will be one of six in the festival’s Shorts Program #3. Revelation to the Disembodied is an alluring commentary on the multidimensionality of human existence. André Silva captures the complexity of man’s evolution of intelligence and tells the story of this evolution through the lens of a post-modern dream. He explores the implications of a world that has become hyper-technological while drawing upon Christian mythology to form an unlikely comparison. This duality makes for a beautifully complex depiction of the equally complex human experience.
The first section of the film begins with the title, “the language they created invaded them.” We see hallucinogenic images of a tree’s roots and branches and blue, luminous spirals, like the rings on the inside of a tree trunk. Silva’s depiction of the Tree of Life, found in the center of the Garden of Eden in Christian mythology, symbolizes the birth of language being synonymous with the birth of man. The rings of the tree trunk contain symbols of an ancient language, signifying the birth of language. We then see the spirals separating and multiplying, implying the birth of man, a reference to the story of Adam and Eve, born in the garden of Eden. Whispers are heard first in fragments before we hear the complete phrase, “Eve, your mother, created me out of Earth.” The pieces of words and sounds preceding the complete phrase are illustrative of the evolution of language that has “invaded.”
The second section of Revelation to the Disembodied, “the luminous object at the end of time,” is a demonstration of the Christian idea of death; when people die, they “see the light” before entering Heaven. We see translucent men and women, depictions of Adam and Eve, being led to death by a beam of light, reminiscent of an alien abduction scene. Adam and Eve are led back into the Tree of Life, perhaps Silva’s commentary on the cyclical nature of existence – that everything is connected. When we die, we are buried under the same Earth we were birthed from. The tree’s roots and branches are transformed into a technology network, humanity’s new Tree of Life. Sperm-like shapes run throughout the network, connoting human birth as well as the snake in the garden of Eden that led Adam and Eve to temptation. Like the snake, technology is leading us to temptation and can become something that may destroy us, as indicated in Silva’s post-modern dream world. One of the most beautiful images in this second sequence is the ocean tunnel that leads to the sun, presumably “the luminous object at the end of time.”
The images of the network, the Tree of Life, and Adam and Eve then converge, indicating the connectedness of the themes Silva is commenting on. Different women symbolizing Eve, are depicted to the left of the tree with the moon behind them whereas the men symbolizing Adam on the right are in front of the sun, further commenting on myths pertaining to men and women. Technology and mythology are connected to humanity through language, thus making technology and mythology connected. André Silva’s ability to show the duality between Christian mythology and modern technology through a post-modernist dream is brilliant. He beautifully demonstrates the birth and death of language, mythology, and technology while commenting on how they have permanently altered our world and will continue to influence us beyond their ties to specific periods.
Revelation to the Disembodied screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, February 10 as part of the Short Program #3. The film will be Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ.
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