Film Screening & Discussion: Scenes of Extraction 

The Utrecht Forum for Memory Studies invites you to a special screening of Scenes of Extraction (Sanaz Sohrabi, Canada/Iran, 2023, OL with English subtitles) followed by a discussion with the filmmaker (online).

In light of the ongoing war by the US and Israel against Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine, we acknowledge the conditions under which this event takes place. Although the program centres on extraction and colonial visual regimes rather than the war directly, we see these histories as inseparable from the geopolitical and ecological crises shaping Iran today.

Scenes of Extraction (43 min, Canada/Iran, 2023) by Sanaz Sohrabi traces the historical and visual imbrication of the camera and the infrastructures of oil exploration in Iran. Drawing on materials from the British Petroleum archives, the essay film reconstructs how geological expeditions conducted between 1901 and 1951 produced both technical knowledge and colonial representations that extended from the Iranian oil belt to British concessions in Papua and Southeast Asia.

By weaving together archival documents, amateur footage, and newly generated CGI maps, the film transforms these materials into a speculative media archaeology of extractive vision. It parses the history of “Reflection Seismography,” an oil exploration method heavily tested in the region despite its destructive and uncertain nature. By exposing this technical legacy, which remains the backbone of the global energy complex and is still used in fracking and deep-sea mining today, the work reveals the coupling of visual and extractive technologies that shaped imperial landscapes and their enduring ecological aftermath. It further considers how archives operate as instruments of dispossession yet remain vital sites for remediating cultural memory and imagining post-extractive futures.

Followed by a conversation with filmmaker Sanaz Sohrabi (online), chaired by Salomé Lopes Coelho (Utrecht University). 

The event will be concluded with a reception.

Attendance is free of charge, but registration is required.
Please register by sending an email to utrechtmemorystudies@uu.nl.

This screening, co-organised with the Utrecht Forum for Memory Studies, is part of the Projecting Post-Extractivism film series, curated by Salomé Lopes Coelho within the EcoViolence ERC Project and in collaboration with the Network for Environmental Humanities, Utrecht University. www.ecologiesofviolence.site.uu.nl