Tlaloc (Lines Drawn in Water)
Tlaloc (Lines Drawn in Water) utilizes 16mm direct animation to investigate the material thresholds of light and fluid mass. The Nahua storm deity is invoked through a high-velocity, immersive flood where chromatic forms collide directly on the film substrate. This visual metamorphosis is co-structured with a dense sonic architecture of sub-aquatic frequencies and atmospheric sound-masses. The film operates as a tactile study of elemental transitions and the material persistence of the signal within an intense, fluid field.
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Abinadi MezaDirector
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Abinadi MezaProducer
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Abinadi MezaComposer
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Project Type:Animation, Experimental, Short
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Genres:Abstract, Art, Color, Handmade
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Runtime:8 minutes 43 seconds
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Completion Date:April 2, 2023
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Production Budget:0 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Shooting Format:16mm
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Aspect Ratio:4:3
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Distribution Information
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Film-Makers’ Cooperative / New American Cinema Group (New York)Distributor
Abinadi Meza is a Latinx-Indigenous (Otomí - México) artist, filmmaker, and composer. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (FAAR). His practice reconfigures cinema as a site of physical and acoustic contact. Using hand-layered 16mm processes, Meza creates an elemental cinema where the film substrate functions as a tactile, metabolic, and synesthetic document.
Meza employs radiophonic signal, electromagnetic phenomena, and frequency interference to develop integrated compositions where sound and image unfold as a resonant body. He utilizes electronic sound masses to produce chromatic depth and luminous transparency; vibrational forces generate dimensional architecture. Through this materialist investigation of thresholds, the work triggers a perceptual sublime.
His media works have been presented at the Walker Art Center, MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and Blaffer Art Museum. Meza’s films have screened at Anthology Film Archives, Cineteca Nacional de México, FACT Liverpool, MCA Santa Barbara, and international festivals including art + film + vienna, Crossroads, Kasseler Dokfest, and the Beijing International Short Film Festival (BISFF). His work is distributed by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in New York.
Tlaloc (Lines Drawn in Water) is the inaugural work in my Elemental Cinema series (2022–present). The work investigates the 16mm film strip as a site for the convergence of mythic iconography and physical intervention. The subtitle refers to a methodology where the celluloid substrate is configured to record the rhythmic and figural behaviors of water through the direct application of fluids and pigments. This inquiry moves beyond representation to engage with the mythopoetic states of drowning and emergence associated with the Nahua storm deity. Within this liquid substrate, the film captures the frequency of Sithu (the Hñähñu spirit of the storm) manifesting as a physical inscription of atmospheric force.
The visual flow utilizes a 24fps frame rate to induce a state of high-velocity optical intensity. This technical choice preserves the rapid, kinetic energy of the hand-marked emulsion. The sonic architecture is a forensic construction of atmospheric signals; it incorporates processed recordings of hydro-acoustic data to ensure a total structural parity with the visual field. The work investigates the dissolution of the frame through the material preservation of fluid energy.
The visual flow utilizes a 24fps frame rate to induce a state of high-velocity optical intensity. This technical choice preserves the rapid, kinetic energy of the hand-marked emulsion. The sonic architecture is a forensic construction of atmospheric signals; it incorporates processed recordings of hydro-acoustic data to ensure a total structural parity with the visual field. The work investigates the dissolution of the frame through the material preservation of fluid energy.
