Film screening Itu Ninu & conversation with Itandehui Jansen

Itu Ninu is an experimental science fiction drama and the latest film by Indigenous Mexican filmmaker and associate professor of film at Edinburgh Napier University Itandehui Jansen (Trailer ).

Itandehui Jansen has been researching sustainable film practices as part of her new film, Itu Ninu. The film is about an Indigenous climate migrant and explores the impacts of climate change.

In the year 2080, Ángel arrives as a climate migrant in a non-specified smart city where everything is under constant vigilance. He cultivates plants for a living. Unexpectedly he meets Sofia, also a migrant, who is working in a recycling facility. He accidentally discovers they speak the same language. To avoid the constant vigilance that they are subjected to, Ángel starts writing her letters using pen and paper. They develop a friendship and start considering ways to escape this world of ever-present control.

The dialogues in the film are primarily be in Mixtec, an Indigenous language from Mexico. Itu Ninu in Mixtec means “the (corn) fields that are high up in the mountains”. In the context of this film, in which the characters live in an urban space where nature is hardly present, it also has a more metaphorical meaning of fields that are distant and far away and that symbolize an ideal place, like an utopia.

During production, the crew worked to minimize its carbon footprint. They were filming exclusively with natural light, sourcing all props and wardrobe from charity shops, and were either walking or travelling with public transport. They were filming on a digital Bolex camera with vintage lenses. The production aimed to be paperless and to limit travel to absolute essentials.

Itandehui Jansen studied film directing at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. She participated in different international training programs, such as the Berlinale Talents and the Torino Film Lab, and holds a PhD from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts at Leiden University. Her films have screened at international festivals such as the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), the Morelia International Film Festival, Slamdance, and the London Short Film Festival. At present she is an Associate Professor Film (Screen Academy Scotland, School of Arts and Creative Industries, Edinburgh Napier University).

Duration: 90 min.
To participate in the event, all guests need a valid museum ticket (or an annual ticket, a KHMembership or a membership of the Weltmuseum Wien Friends).
Registration online  (limited number of participants)
Meeting point: WMW Forum