Lacuna is a visual essay about the relationship between humans, animals, machines, and water.

We explore the valley left behind by what was once the largest lake West of the Mississippi river- Lake Tulare. The lake was drained by settlers in the late 19th century and has subsequently turned into some of the most valuable agricultural land in the world. The lake continues to return every few decades during particularly wet seasons, but it is only ever a shadow of its former self.

Through a formal visual language, we explore the capacity for land to hold memory, for the actions of the past to be manifest in the present.

The word Lacuna often refers to a gap, the absence of something, or an indentation. It is also used to describe insufficiency, a lack, a drought. During the filming we confined ourselves to the area of the former lake- or its lacuna, the negative space left behind by its destruction. The lake is now just a memory that occasionally returns to haunt a region stricken by drought. The valley now has a new ecology, as humans, birds, fish, coyotes, and machines all search for water.

Screenings

70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, May 2024, Germany