Connie Zheng

The Lonely Age

The Lonely Age by Connie Zheng is the first chapter in a trilogy of short experimental films about the complex temporalities of navigating ongoing environmental crises, as seen through the lens of seeds real and imagined. The film is set in a highly toxic and ecologically ravaged near future, in which people begin to hear rumors of seeds that have washed up on the shores of California after escaping from a factory in China. The seeds are rumored to possess curative properties, but they are also said to be sentient. The film toys with the languages of propaganda, dystopian cinema, documentary, and avant-garde film, while examining divergent articulations of hope amidst ecological disaster. 

Through this mode of informal myth-making, Zheng’s work asks: How can image-makers mobilize the romantic qualities of the apocalyptic narrative in order to inspire climate action? What possibilities exist for humans to engage in cooperative, non-hierarchical behavior, given our conditioning under capitalism? And how do we negotiate the terms of our survival in a way that respects the agency of all living beings while also acknowledging the oppressive structures of colonialism, racism, and xenophobia that have historically shaped our relationship to the “Other”? At its core The Lonely Age is a meta-fictional film whose tension emerges from rumors of hope. Are the seeds real? Are they actually radioactive waste from China? In a sense, it doesn’t matter—the film is about the power of belief and underlying ideologies that underpin hope and skepticism.