A friend from afar reminds Dr. Cristina Dorador in “Life Invisible” that she can still remember when the two would go to the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile together when Dr. Dorador was just a teen. Even then, she would take pictures in the remote salt flats to study later and it would prepare her well for a career in microbial ecology, an expertise that has tremendous value now as certain antibiotics have lost their efficacy as bacteria has evolved and the scientist is called back to the region where it’s thought that there may be answers in the rare resources to be found there. She isn’t the only one there with that mandate, as the salt flats have also become a reliable source for lithium, a sought-after commodity in the age of electric vehicles and cell phones, and while Dr. Dorador faces no opposition when bringing in a group to collect soil samples with the hope of new life-saving medications, the indigenous communities to Chile have to worry about further degradation to their land.
Filmmakers Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff had also been around these parts before, having previously embedded with the elders in the Chilean highlands who grew concerned with increased mining in the region, and they look to the big picture with this short that puts the Dr. Dorador’s work in context when using lenses as powerful as she might use in her own scientific study. Using cameras that are able to capture the tiniest of microorganisms or drones that can make humans look like specks from above in the sweep of the earth that we all share, “Life Invisible” extrapolates quite a bit from a glimpse at all that’s transpiring in the Atacama Desert, portending great changes in the world at large. While Dr. Dorador keeps her head down an concentrates on a small parcel of land, the act of revisiting the region so much over time yields observations well before she can put what she finds under the microscope, all too aware that some areas are now off-limits due to their precarious state and others radically changed by industrial activity and climate change.
Making its world premiere this week at Hot Docs in Toronto, “Life Invisible” is already a reflection of what Perut and Osnovikoff were in pursuit of when teaming with the British-based Grain Media to show how some small overlooked element on one side of the world can have a great impact on another far away and before the film begins to criss-cross the globe at various festivals, the filmmaking duo spoke about how the film got off the ground, its meticulous visual style that allows audiences to have the broader view that Dr. Dorador has had and the complicated questions raised by the film about striking the right balance for the environment and its inhabitants.
How did this come about?
Ivan Osnovikoff: At the end of 2023, we got an e-mail from Grain Media proposing us a project to be shot in the north of Chile about the research work of Cristina Dorador, a Chilean scientist, and even if we aren’t used to doing commissioned works, it was very interesting for us in this case because of [Grain] and when it was also commissioned by the Nobel Foundation. The north [of Chile] is also so cinematic and this topic [where] we’re working with very little [lifeforms] and facing the challenge of filming this kind of existence is something we like a lot. So we said, “Let’s go,” and it was a good decision.
Bettina Perut: At first, we knew about Cristina because she had a political role in the creation of our new constitution in Chile, and it was very natural for us to connect with her. We were also very interested in the work she was doing with microorganisms because in our previous work, we didn’t [focus on this] specifically, but it made sense to conceive the world as [a series of] interconnected ecosystems where everything matters and everything is connected. This is the same intellectual frame with which Christina’s work, so it was a very easy match.
It is striking how you film this and it made me wonder after you previously studied the effects of climate change on the salt mines in your 2015 feature “Surire,” whether that experience helped you figure out how you could tell this particular story?
Bettina Perut: Absolutely, because for us, the Chilean desert allows us to experiment with different kind of scales [of image] and to do big visual work and the importance of the image in constructing the point of view of the film is very important, so to work in Chile was absolutely a good experience.
Ivan Osnovikoff: This is [also] the first time we use drones. We were a little reluctant to do it. But in this case, the visualization of the salt flats made a lot of sense for us to use a drone. The producers at first asked us, we said no, but thinking more [about it], we finally decided to do it and we’re very satisfied with the result.
Bettina Perut: Also, the way the drone allows you to record the human movements, it’s very interesting and allowed us to discover something new.
You’re able to bring in Christina’s past quite elegantly without ever to leave the present as she talks on the phone to her friend Vivi and you see old photos from how she started down the path she’s on now. How did that scene come together?
Ivan Osnovikoff: In this case, the shooting of “Life Invisible” was much [shorter] than the usual [production] we do, so the input that the producers gave us was very useful and important in order to introduce emotional elements in the film. This [scene] arose because of the dramatic need [for a scene like that] and during the shooting, we had a very good connection with Christina and opened her past life [in interviews]. Afterwards, Bettina asked her for photos and in these photos, we discovered this experience of [her] first trips to Salar de Atacama. She’s a photographer and in [editing], we discovered this possibility and we liked it a lot too.
Bettina Perut: It was very organic, the way in which that conversation [unfolded], and in their [shared] experience, the discovery of this place [made a great impression], so a lot of things combined there for our luck.
It was beautiful filmmaking. Was there anything that happened that changed your ideas of what this could be?
Bettina Perut: Always. In [our previous film] “Las Reyes,” the film was first about a group of skaters and it ended up in a film about two dogs living in a skate park, so we feel that always that changes are for the best. For us, the shooting is the very research on the reality we are working, so we had an initial approach that was transformed during the shooting in very important ways.
Ivan Osnovikoff: One of the things we knew early is that you cannot get all of [this topic]. The research work on this incredible space and the connection between the scientific research and these salt lakes [as they are in nature]. At first, we asked ourselves, how do we do that? You need to select one special particular unique element in order to address the whole thing through this detail and collaboration was very important. The discussions with the Grain team were very important to focus on what we needed to work on and working on it, we think we arrived at something important.
What’s it like to get to this point with it and start sharing it with audiences?
Ivan Osnovikoff: For us, it’s very exciting. It’s a long way from the first idea to the release of the film, so we are very happy of sharing this with audiences. It’s a film that talks about how everything is interconnected and [we were inspired by] our own connection between Christina’s work and our work about generating a consciousness of how interconnected [the world is] and how microorganisms living in a very fragile ecosystem can be important for our everyday life.
Bettina Perut: Also it’s interesting for us how very complex the balance is. Lithium exploitation [can be considered] somehow good because it allows us to stop burning oil, but it’s at a conflict point with medical research, so we don’t have an answer to that, but this is something we learned through the making of the film and we need to be thoughtful and to have a discussion and to take responsibility on how these two necessities and activities connect and balance.
“Life Invisible” will screen at Hot Docs in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox on April 29th at 8:30 pm and May 2nd at 11:15 am.