HERBARIA × PELICULA: Field Portfolio (2021)
Derek Jenkins
HERBARIA × PELICULA: Field Portfolio Derek Jenkins Canada 16mm > digital12 min 2021
HERBARIA × PELICULA: Field Portfolio is the single channel version of a multichannel installation which examines the work taking place at the HAM Herbarium at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. The Herbarium is located along the edges of the Cootes Paradise wetland on the traditional territory of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee peoples. Its collection comprises over 60,000 specimens from around the world, though it’s primarily composed of local vascular plant types gathered by members of the scientific community alongside educated hobbyists and amateur botanists. Combining documentary footage of the herbarium, code-generated database animations of digitized specimen sheets, and images of plantlife processed in plant material, the film positions the specific labour of botanical gathering and collection as an image-making practice, in addition to a mode of knowledge production. – Derek Jenkins
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with the Art Gallery of Windsor and Windsor Endowment for the Arts.
Image credits: all artworks, stills, and portraits courtesy of the artist © Derek Jenkins.
about the artist
Derek Jenkins (Canada/USA) is a motion picture photographer born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1980. His practice is handmade, personal, and documentary, with an interest in labour, ecology, and technology—specifically the reciprocal relationships between tools, materials, and ways of knowing. He received a BA (2003) and an MA (2008) in English from the University of Arkansas, and an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University (2021). His films, including Contents (2018), The Shouting Flower (2019), Livestock (2019), and Grounders (2020), have been exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries, including DocLisboa, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, McMaster Museum of Art, ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival, the8fest, FRACTO Experimental Film Encounter, Factory Media Centre, and Experiments in Cinema, among many others. He is Executive Director of Hamilton Artists Inc. and is a board member at Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Jenkins has also worked as a technician at Niagara Custom Lab. This is his second appearance at Media City Film Festival. He lives and works in Hamilton, Ontario.