Fern Silva

Rock Bottom Riser (2021)

From the earliest voyagers who navigated by starlight to the discovery of habitable planets by astronomers, Rock Bottom Riser examines the all-encompassing encounters of an island world at sea. As lava continues to flow from the earth's core on the island ...

Lore (2020)

Images of landscapes are cut and fragmented, as a hand guides their shape and construction. The voice tells a story about a not too distant past, and elements of nostalgia are assembled in terms of lore. ...

The Grand Bizarre (2018)

A kinetic journey through the graphic motifs of textiles paired with figures and landscapes to explore the technological development of fabric production and consumption alongside systems of visual and spoken language. The piece investigates recurring grap ...

Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder (2017)

Through softly textured 16mm photography and regional iconography, Silva offers a modernist reflection on two of upstate New York's most storied 19th century touchstones—the landscape painters of the Hudson River School and the legend of Rip Van Winkle†...

The Watchmen (2017)

In The Watchmen, pulsating orbs, panopticons, roadside rest stops, and subterranean labyrinths confront the scope of human consequences and the entanglement of our seeking bodies. ...

Pants on Fire (2015)

Scales in the Spectrum of Space (2015)

A glimpse into the collective memory of the city of Chicago at the invitation of the Chicago Film Archive. In a very associative way, the experimental anthropologist and cineast Silva sampled a mini city symphony from 35 films, limiting himself purely to e ...

Tender Feet (2014)

Shot on the road in the southwest, leading up to the not quite so cataclysmic and transformative events anticipated to take place around December 21, 2012 as predicted in the Mayan Calendar. ...

Wayward Fronds (2014)

"Mermaids flip a tale of twin detriments, domiciles cradle morph invaders, crocodile trails swallow two-legged twigs in a fecund mash of nature's outlaws... down in the Everglades. ...

Liahona (2013)

Liahona is an experimental documentary examining the culture, history, and lived experience of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often referred to as the Mormon faith. The film creates a portrait of Mormonism through documentation of LDS cul ...

Concrete Parlay (2012)

Carried by the frenetic energy of a magic carpet, Concrete Parlay is a metaphysical flight that weaves among visual kernels of the anthropic and biological worlds. From prehistoric horseshoe crabs strewn among modern refuse, stoic pyramids foregrounded by ...

In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails (2011)

In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails suggests a future already arrived, merging the destruction with the creation of life as seen in the tiny turtles crawling their way to the sea, or heard in the crackling of a Geiger counter as a masked man sprays ...

Peril of the Antilles (2011)

Peril of the Antilles was filmed at the beginning of November 2010 while visiting a friend in Haiti. At this specific time, the cholera epidemic was on its way to Port-au-Prince, Hurricane Tomas was on the horizon, presidential elections were in a couple w ...

Passage Upon the Plume (2011)

"Those who go thither, they return not again." Plumes dust the arid land, east to west, shapeshifting as they lift in ascension. Something lowers. An ark ran aground where revolution took root: ropes raise stones in baskets. Hearts heavier and lighter ...

Forged Ways (2011)

Filmed on location in Harlem (NY) and Ethiopia, Forged Ways oscillates between the first person account of a filmmaker, a man navigating the streets of Harlem, and the day to day life in the cities and villages of Ethiopia. ...

Servants of Mercy (2010)

Fern Silva's Servants of Mercy (Portugal/USA, 2010, 14m), presents a variation on portrait film, subtly showing the redevelopment and changes of Portuguese landscape and society through the prism of his families old household helper, a remainder of Portuga ...

Sahara Mosaic (2009)

Sahara Mosaic is an orientalist kaleidoscope that constitutes a geographically complex, yet cinematic whole. From Egypt to Las Vegas: the old and the new world are reflected and doubled in this experimental travelogue. ...

Spinners (2008)

Shot in New Jersey, Spinners rolls it's way into decades of roller skating culture that's outlived fads from the recent past. Traveling from afar by foot and car, the Holiday Skating Center's Adult Night participants float to an organ playing tunes that ha ...

After Marks (2008)

Soon after Mark LaPore died, I began having dreams of him, with him, in locations that often resembled the ones in his films, the ones he shot in India. When I spent late nights at MassArt working on my projects, I'd see and hear apparitions of him, trying ...

Notes from a Bastard Child (2007)

A film by Fern Silva ...

The Most Beautiful Smile in the World (2006)

By Fern Silva and starring Rosa Marinete Silva (1946-2021) ...

Imposing Disbelief (2010)

Home Haven employee Mike Roswell is fed up with organized religion. After a less-than-ideal encounter with a Jehovah's Witness leaves him questioning his beliefs, he decides to take matters own hands and start an Alliance... of Atheists. Mike and best frie ...