Fern Silva

From the earliest voyagers who navigated by starlight to the discovery of habitable planets by astronomers, Rock Bottom Riser examines the all-encompassing encounters of an island world at sea. As lava continues to flow from the earth’s core on the island of Hawaii—posing an imminent danger—a crisis mounts. Astronomers plan to build the world’s largest telescope on Hawaii’s most sacred and revered mountain, Mauna Kea. Based on ancient Polynesian navigation, the arrival of Christian missionaries, and the observatory’s ability to capture the origins of the universe, Rock Bottom Riser surveys the influence of settler colonialism, the search for intelligent life, and the discovery of new worlds as we peer into our own planet’s existence.

Filmed on location in Harlem (NY) and Ethiopia, Forged Ways oscillates between the first person account of a filmmaker, a man navigating the streets of Harlem, and the day to day life in the cities and villages of Ethiopia.

A kinetic journey through the graphic motifs of textiles paired with figures and landscapes to explore the technological development of fabric production and consumption alongside systems of visual and spoken language. The piece investigates recurring graphic symbols and how their cross-cultural appropriation functions within a global economy.

By Fern Silva and starring Rosa Marinete Silva (1946-2021)

Liahona is an experimental documentary examining the culture, history, and lived experience of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often referred to as the Mormon faith. The film creates a portrait of Mormonism through documentation of LDS cultural dominance in Utah, the suppressed history of folk magic in the early church, landmark Mormon life experiences, and my personal history and connection to the church. Found media with the voices of outsiders and insiders illuminate a religion that intrigues many, but is seen as mysterious or inaccessible. Liahona shifts through perspectives on the faith – from reverence to questioning, presenting the complexities of the vast institution of Mormonism contrasted with the tenuity of individual faith.

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“Mermaids flip a tale of twin detriments, domiciles cradle morph invaders, crocodile trails swallow two-legged twigs in a fecund mash of nature's outlaws... down in the Everglades.” (Fern Silva)

This is a travelogue of sorts, as two friends whose lives intersect and diverge, look at the road and the vessels we use as means to traverse landscapes both contemporary and historical, and of the spirit and of the body.

Shot in New Jersey, Spinners rolls it's way into decades of roller skating culture that's outlived fads from the recent past. Traveling from afar by foot and car, the Holiday Skating Center's Adult Night participants float to an organ playing tunes that have been stamped in our memory as staples of American pop culture.

“Those who go thither, they return not again.” Plumes dust the arid land, east to west, shapeshifting as they lift in ascension. Something lowers. An ark ran aground where revolution took root: ropes raise stones in baskets. Hearts heavier and lighter than the feather, permitted passage. Tethered or freed, resting from life or dawning anew. (Charity Coleman)

A film by Fern Silva

Images of landscapes are cut and fragmented, as a hand guides their shape and construction. The voice tells a story about a not too distant past, and elements of nostalgia are assembled in terms of lore.

Through softly textured 16mm photography and regional iconography, Silva offers a modernist reflection on two of upstate New York’s most storied 19th century touchstones—the landscape painters of the Hudson River School and the legend of Rip Van Winkle—nodding to a few musical heroes along the way.

Sahara Mosaic is an orientalist kaleidoscope that constitutes a geographically complex, yet cinematic whole. From Egypt to Las Vegas: the old and the new world are reflected and doubled in this experimental travelogue.

Rebounds (The Impossible Return) is a hypnotic portrait of basketball culture in modern-day Greece. The film draws parallels between the origins of competitive sport in Ancient Greece and contemporary spectator sport culture. Finding how in the midst of economic turmoil, aspirations of class mobility, masculinity, and nationalism pave ways for familiar fantasies to unfold amongst citizens and immigrants alike.

Shot on the road in the southwest, leading up to the not quite so cataclysmic and transformative events anticipated to take place around December 21, 2012 as predicted in the Mayan Calendar.

Soon after Mark LaPore died, I began having dreams of him, with him, in locations that often resembled the ones in his films, the ones he shot in India. When I spent late nights at MassArt working on my projects, I'd see and hear apparitions of him, trying to tell me something, trying to warn me about something. I travelled to the places I spent with him in my dreams. He was there with me until the end of the trip... I should have listened to him.

Carried by the frenetic energy of a magic carpet, Concrete Parlay is a metaphysical flight that weaves among visual kernels of the anthropic and biological worlds. From prehistoric horseshoe crabs strewn among modern refuse, stoic pyramids foregrounded by golf course maintenance, mystic rituals evoking avian gestures, to contemporary political upheaval equalized by natural phenomena—the poetic equivalence among images transcends particular umwelten, as the disorienting whirl of the compass connotes the kinetic nature of existence.-Aily Nash

In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails suggests a future already arrived, merging the destruction with the creation of life as seen in the tiny turtles crawling their way to the sea, or heard in the crackling of a Geiger counter as a masked man sprays plants with pesticides.

Home Haven employee Mike Roswell is fed up with organized religion. After a less-than-ideal encounter with a Jehovah's Witness leaves him questioning his beliefs, he decides to take matters own hands and start an Alliance... of Atheists. Mike and best friend Dave embark on a journey to bring the Voice of Disbelief to the masses. Many hilarious encounters including a near suicide, annoying residents, and a showdown with the Jehovah's Witness meet them on their way. But little do they know that starting the Atheist Alliance will get them noticed by more than just their followers...