Epitaph is an examination of site and memory. It follows the effects of plate tectonics on the landscape of Chile – the filmmaker’s birthplace – and the small and large cycles of destruction and rebuilding the ever-present earthquakes trigger. Filmed in both Chile and on the Tablelands in Canada, a site central to the modern understanding of plate tectonics, Epitaph incorporates eco-processed 16 mm footage, video, documents from public and private archives, and found footage to weave an epitaph to a home in the process of leaving the filmmaker, first as a result of exile and then to the gradual movement of time. Epitaph has been eco-processed on-site in rural Chile at the site of the filmmaker’s father’s family home in Quirihue, Chile, using boldo, figs, fig leaves, walnut leaves, apples, apple leaves, fall grapes, fall grape leaves, olives, olive leaves, plums, mint, yard flowers and other vegetation.
