Black Summer – Australia 2019/2020

by Felix Dierich – soundtrack by Roman Vehlken – D 2022

hybrid short film – experimental animated documentary – 4K or FHD 16:9 – 5.1 sound – 11:40 min
video installation – 4K or FHD, multi-channel loop – stereo or 5.1 sound – 10 min

In the “Black Summer” of 2019/2020, Australia had some of the worst bushfires in its history. More than 20% of the forested area of the continent was destroyed, more than a billion animals were killed along with significant human casualties. The meteorological satellite Himawari-8 observed this catastrophe from the far distance.

For this experimental animated documentary, terabytes of satellite data were processed with specially developed algorithms, combining visible light and infrared measurements with heat detection. Animated, the rendered images form a hypnotic stream, documenting the catastrophe like never seen before. The work is presented as a hybrid short film or a video installation.

Screenings „Black Summer“ short film

June 2022 – CinemAmbiente – Torino, Italy – World Premiere!
August 2022 – Open-Air Filmfest Weiterstadt – Weiterstadt, Germany
August 2022 – Smaragdni Eco Film Festival – various places, Croatia
September 2022 – Lucca Film Festival – Lucca, Italy („Films For Our Future“)
September 2022 – Cinema Planeta – Mexico City, Mexico
October 2022 – Cine Eco – Seia, Portugal
October 2022 – Innsbruck Nature Film Festival – Innsbruck, Austria
October 2022 – IndieCork – Cork, Ireland
November 2022 – Nordische Filmtage – Lübeck, Germany
November 2022 – Flensburger Kurzfilmtage – Flensburg, Germany
March 2023 – Videoformes – Clermont Ferrand, France
March 2023 – DCEFF – Washington, DC, USA
March 2023 – Internationale Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg – Regensburg, Germany
April 2023 – Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein – Kiel, Germany
April 2023 – ecozine – Zaragoza, Spain
April 2023 – Filmfest Dresden – Dresden, Germany (Panorama)
April 2023 – CINEMARE – Kiel, Germany
April 2023 – FIC Radio City – Valencia, Spain
May 2023 – cellu l’art – Jena, Germany –Special Mention „Visual Design“
June 2023 – River Film Festival – Padua, Italy – Audience Award „Cambiamenti climatici“
July 2023 – OpenEyes Filmfest – Marburg, Germany
August 2023 – Concorto Film Festival – Pontenure, Italy
August 2023 – Visionswerkstatt – Palingen, Germany
September 2023 – Ibrida Festival – Forlì, Italy
October 2023 – Skepto International Film Festival – Cagliari, Italy
November 2023 – Blicke – Filmfestival des Ruhrgebiets – Bochum, Germany
December 2023 – TIMELINE BH – Belo Horizonte, Brazil (sessão Ibrida Festival)

Video installation „Black Summer“

January 2023 – Stuttgarter Filmwinter – Expanded Media Exhibition – Stuttgart, Germany
March 2023 – Internationale Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg / M26 – Regensburg, Germany

Links and Contact

See the „Black Summer“ Facebook page and Instagram @felixdierich for more news.

Interview with the filmmaker by the mdr short film magazine „unicato“ (in German):
Felix Dierich zeigt die Folgen des Klimawandels aus Satelliten-Perspektive (ARD Mediathek)

Contact the filmmaker at dierich@email.de

Links about the Australian Black Summer:

BBC news, “Australia fires: A visual guide to the bushfire crisis” : status of Jan 31^st 2020 (before the end of the fires), includes many graphs, visualizations, photographs and satellite-derived imagery:
Wikipedia page “2019–20 Australian bushfire season”: many collected facts and an extensive list of links

Links about the satellite Himawari-8:

Wikipedia page on Himawari-8
JMA page on Himawari-8: lots of technical information and more
BoM page on Himawari-8: lots of technical information and links to the scientific data at NCI, which was also used to create the images in this film
NICT images from Himawari-8 data: real-time and historic images in beautiful quality (not used in the film)

Works by Felix Dierich

Short films:

Halt (2003)
Rocky (2013)
A Year Along the Geostationary Orbit (2018) – on Vimeo (Staff Pick Premiere)
Shapes and Sizes, Storms and Smoke (2020)
Three Unknown Territories (2020)
Black Summer – Australia 2019/2020 (short film, 2022)
Night Over R32 (2023)
sonic salt (2024)

Installations:

OL night trash (video installation, 200?)
Nachrichtennetzwerk, Ausstellung Medienumbrüche (interactive news network installation, 2004)
Black Summer – Australia 2019/2020 (video installation, 2023)
Night Over R32 (video installation version, 2024)

Credit

Credits of „Black Summer – Australia 2019/2020“

Concept, Algorithms and Coding, Image Creation, Colour, Compositing	Felix Dierich
Soundtrack	Roman Vehlken
Himawari-8 Satellite data	Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)