Belinda Griffiths, Luiz Dos Santos and Julieanna Preston. Flight of the Armour Rocks [short film], Ōtaki River, 2025. (forthcoming)

Along the Ōtaki River’s north bank, several piles of rocks rest in waiting as potential use in flood protection. As embankment fortification resistant to the river’s penchant to wander, they have been there more than a decade, and as such, sit entrenched as heavy, static masses. Hard, tough and impenetrable, these rocks, known as amour rocks, are unique to Aotearoa. They originated from the plains of the Tararua Range just southeast of Palmerston North, harvested from Linton Quarry, a relatively contemporary mining operation that has left a gapping whole in the lush fertile land. These piles of rock are reminders of climate change manifested in massive weather fluctuations that wreak havoc with rising seas and rivers. They are associated with pollution to water bodies generated by neglectful human activities. They are but one of too many artefacts demonstrating the effects of colonisation, land appropriation, and misunderstanding of the agential liveness of other-than-human entities in western European settler world paradigms.

This film is a political imaginary that uses a combination of stop motion techniques, charcoal drawing and painting, custom made virtual instruments and sound effects, and locally recorded environmental sounds to tell the story of these rocks responding to a call to come home, to repair the wound in the land’s surface. With resistance to first-world entitlement and its misuse of natural resources and as a retort to the ease of AI’s mechanistic appropriation of creative expression, charcoal references the literal and philosophical fires burning through the overheating planet. The animated film suggests some form of reparation through virtual means while also suggesting that the river might be better off to run its course. It tries to reveal the hubris of river management, the displacement of these rock as special features, taonga, and most importantly, a world in which even heavy rocks frolic. It asks a deeper provocation of Tangata Pākehā: Is it time to give back? With intent to turn away from a western anthropomorphic worldview, it turns towards a practice of non-anthropocentric, ecocentrism and relational ontologies more akin to indigenous knowledge systems and spiritual contemplation.

Once the film is completed in early 2026, it is our intention to exhibit it in a group Rock-A-Bye Baby show, submit it to appropriate short and experimental film festivals internationally, and hopefully, present it to the local community.

Belinda Griffiths is a multimedia artist whose practice is exploring immersive experiences that are ephemeral and contemplative through multi-sensory phenomena, with a hybrid of digital art, sculpture, painting and immersive sound art installations.

Luiz Dos Santos is a visual communication designer and musician with a strong interest in sound design, video editing, and digital media. He has contributed to a range of collaborative digital media projects that include Red Dot Award achievements and film festival nominations. His practice brings together technical skill and creative experimentation, with a focus on creating engaging audiovisual media.

Julieanna Preston is an artist living in Ōtaki, Aotearoa who explores material vibrancy through durational place-situated performances, vocalisations, and experimental forms of writing. www.julieannapreston.space