THE shocked is a critically endangered species of salamander native to Lake Pátzcuaro in Michoacán, Mexico. It is renowned for its regenerative qualities – it can regrow lost limbs or even organs. This makes it attractive to religious pilgrims, who buy an extract of the salamander sold by the nuns of the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Salud (“Our Lady of Health”), who have been raising the animals for more than 150 years. It has also caught the attention of the US military, which dreams of creating soldiers with the same self-healing ability. The nuns’ shock population is now greater than that in the wild. The opening scene of A common sequence follows fishermen who find none as they roam the lake. The title of the documentary refers to the fundamental DNA script used to write all life on Earth. By observing the lake and two other environments, the film questions the different ways in which humans assess, categorize, understand and often exploit the natural world.
Achoques have been nearly wiped out of their habitat by invasive species. Unable to find work fishing them, young Mexicans go abroad to find work. The film follows them to Prosser, Washington, where they get jobs picking apples. Not far away, researchers at Washington State University are refining a machine learning algorithm that they hope will help automated robotic arms pick apples with 20% greater efficiency, a seemingly negligible improvement that they say , would save the industry millions every year. Further still, in the lands of the Cheyenne River Sioux, the film visits Native BioData Consortium director Joseph Yracheta, who is of partial P’urépecha ancestry, like the fishermen of Michoacán. Via videoconferences, Yracheta attempts to warn the public about the dangers of genomic patents, with private companies owning the rights to certain DNA sequences. He is particularly concerned about what these companies would do with Indigenous DNA, given the long history of medical exploitation that Indigenous peoples have suffered in the United States.
Weaving a common thread of indigenity between these different sites, directors Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser examine how mundane material can be at the cutting edge of experimental science. A lot of A common sequence deals with daily work, inviting the viewer to see the overlap between fishermen sorting their nets, laborers picking fruit in an orchard, nuns tending to salamanders in reservoirs, and engineers checking their numbers. It’s sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, despite seemingly banal settings, like in a sequence that shows the lake at night lit only by the headlights of fishermen. The salamanders drift almost dreamily in their tanks, alongside wriggling pods of food worms. A computer algorithm shapes the outline of an apple – but has it really accomplished anything, if the mechanical eye and arm can’t figure out what an apple really is East? Does it matter, as long as he can skillfully pick the fruit?
A common sequence tackles the issues of diminishing biological commons in a way that might seem novel for a documentary. Rather than taking a macro view and inundating the audience with facts and figures, he uses his trio of locations to demonstrate in a more tangible and immediate way how these topics manifest in everyday life. Part of the science on screen program at the Museum of the Moving Image First look festival, the film illustrates the experimental spirit of this festival. It’s a strange but often fascinating glimpse into possible scientific advances of the future – both wonderful and unnerving.
A common sequence premieres in the United States as part of the First Look festival at the Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, Queens) on March 18.
