Erotic Geologies is a sci-fi parable that seeks knowledge from the underground. Shifting through an otherworldly landscape where rocky outcrops meet tumultuous skies, the setting of the film makes reference to post-earthquake Ōtautahi in Te Waipounamu and the Tongariro Crossing in Te Ika-a-Māui. The narrative follows protagonists Rangi and Liberté, characters inspired by both Māori mythologies surrounding the figures of Ranginui and Papatūānuku’s children, and Greek figures Deucalion and Pyrrha. Archaeology, time and kaitiakitanga are central to the work which merges a local, contemporary narrative with deep time and mythology.
Merchant bankers Rangi and Liberté are flung into hostile and unfamiliar ground after an earthquake renders their office into rubble. Lost in a world they don’t understand, they wander the harsh terrain, unwittingly seeking refuge in the sunken troves of geology. This is an underground that has no time and no exit. Trapped until they receive the necessary Chthonic knowledge, they’re finally released into the open air, emerging to find immemorial time has passed, a geological age has passed… everything has passed. Taking what they learned from their captivity underground Rangi and Liberté ascend to the highest mountain top to complete their survival task—to throw the bones of the mother (stones of mother earth).
