Techno-aesthetic Sustainability in the Audiovisual Praxis

By considering the debut feature-length documentary Honeyland (2019) by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, this contribution focuses on the sustainability in the audiovisual praxis. The North Macedonian environmental documentary — which chronicles the life of Hatidže Muratova, one of the last European female wild beekeepers — is an ideal example of the so-called ecocinema that can also be discussed from an ecocritical approach and an ecomaterialist perspective simultaneously. Moreover, my contribution aims to show how the ecological side of Honeyland relates not just to the narrative of an actual issue, but also to the achievement of a sustainable cinematic practice. By examining the making of Honeyland in terms of production, storytelling, and techno-aesthetics, I aim to detect its “film ecology”, i.e., the ways Kotevska and Stefanov, together with cinematographers Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, create a cinematic practice that acknowledges the environment, adapts to it, and is inspired by it: visual solutions, logistic limitations, crew equipment, shooting schedules, cameras typologies, and lighting processes all reveal indeed an ecological and sustainable consciousness in filmmaking