In this personal essay documentary, the director reflects on their journey of getting diagnosed with endometriosis through observing the invasive Japanese Knotweed. While both the disease and the plant grow disruptively through their respective environments, one is treated with urgency while the other is met with inaction. An ecofeminist meditation on the body, biology, care and control, There’s Not Much We Can Do Prompts us to question the very things we consider “natural” in the first place.
Directed and Edited by: Erica Monde
Producer: Clara Harris
Cinematographer: Marta Massa
Sound Designer/Recordist: Alexis Psillas
Developed, Supported and Executive Produced by Screen Scotland and the Scottish Documentary Institute’s Bridging the Gap Programme
For screening inquiries please contact ericamondefilms@gmail.com
Festival selections and screenings:
WORLD PREMIERE – Edinburgh International Film Festival, August 2022 (UK)
Inverness Film Festival, November 2022 (UK)
Glasgow Short Film Festival, March 2023 (UK)
Spit it Out Festival, June 2023 (UK)
Encounters Film Festival, September 2023 (UK)
Raindance Film Festival (Nominee best documentary short), October 2023 (UK)
DOC NYC, October 2023 (USA)
Take One Action Film Festival, December 2023 (UK)
ReFrame Film Festival, January 2024 (Canada)
Lived Perspectives, March 2024 (UK)
Mediamatic Japanese Knotweed Festival, April - May 2024 (Netherlands)
Davis Feminist Film Festival, May 2024 (USA)
EXPS:SLC, July 2024 (USA)
RestFest, August 2024 (USA)
Braziers International Film Festival, August 2024 (UK)
Les Mains Gauches Queer Feminist Film Festival September 2024 (France)
Shortscapes, September 2024 (UK)
ARKIPEL Jakarta International Experimental and Documentary Film Festival, September 2024 (Indonesia)
Dialogues Documentary Festival, September 2024 (USA)
Scottish Queer International Film Festival, October 2024 (UK)
Scottish Mental Health Arts Film Festival, October 2024 (UK)
Bucharest Feminist Film Festival, October 2024 (Romania)
CineToro Film Festival, November 2024 (Colombia)
University of Massachussetts, Amherst, December 2024 (USA)
Vitreous Film Festival, February 2025 (Canada)
Festival Filministes, March 2025 (Canada)
International Feminist & Queer Festival Red Dawns, March 2025 (Slovenia)
Balkan Can Kino, April 2025 (Greece)
Directed and Edited by: Erica Monde
Producer: Clara Harris
Cinematographer: Marta Massa
Sound Designer/Recordist: Alexis Psillas
Developed, Supported and Executive Produced by Screen Scotland and the Scottish Documentary Institute’s Bridging the Gap Programme
For screening inquiries please contact ericamondefilms@gmail.com
Festival selections and screenings:
WORLD PREMIERE – Edinburgh International Film Festival, August 2022 (UK)
Inverness Film Festival, November 2022 (UK)
Glasgow Short Film Festival, March 2023 (UK)
Spit it Out Festival, June 2023 (UK)
Encounters Film Festival, September 2023 (UK)
Raindance Film Festival (Nominee best documentary short), October 2023 (UK)
DOC NYC, October 2023 (USA)
Take One Action Film Festival, December 2023 (UK)
ReFrame Film Festival, January 2024 (Canada)
Lived Perspectives, March 2024 (UK)
Mediamatic Japanese Knotweed Festival, April - May 2024 (Netherlands)
Davis Feminist Film Festival, May 2024 (USA)
EXPS:SLC, July 2024 (USA)
RestFest, August 2024 (USA)
Braziers International Film Festival, August 2024 (UK)
Les Mains Gauches Queer Feminist Film Festival September 2024 (France)
Shortscapes, September 2024 (UK)
ARKIPEL Jakarta International Experimental and Documentary Film Festival, September 2024 (Indonesia)
Dialogues Documentary Festival, September 2024 (USA)
Scottish Queer International Film Festival, October 2024 (UK)
Scottish Mental Health Arts Film Festival, October 2024 (UK)
Bucharest Feminist Film Festival, October 2024 (Romania)
CineToro Film Festival, November 2024 (Colombia)
University of Massachussetts, Amherst, December 2024 (USA)
Vitreous Film Festival, February 2025 (Canada)
Festival Filministes, March 2025 (Canada)
International Feminist & Queer Festival Red Dawns, March 2025 (Slovenia)
Balkan Can Kino, April 2025 (Greece)
This desert will rust your bones
Short fiction film
2025
United Kingdom
Short fiction film
2025
United Kingdom
In post production
By night, Ainsley works at a deafening factory by the sea, struggling to drown out the relentless metallic sounds their body makes with each movement. When their new co-worker Simon arrives, Ainsley’s solitary existence is upended. This Desert Will Rust Your Bones is a surrealist exploration of trans love and the transformative power of being understood, even in the most barren of places.
Directed by: Erica Monde
Produced by: Clara Harris
Developed, Supported and Executive Produced by Short Circuit, BFI Network and Screen Scotland
https://shortcircuit.scot/sharp-shorts-2023-awardees-announced/
By night, Ainsley works at a deafening factory by the sea, struggling to drown out the relentless metallic sounds their body makes with each movement. When their new co-worker Simon arrives, Ainsley’s solitary existence is upended. This Desert Will Rust Your Bones is a surrealist exploration of trans love and the transformative power of being understood, even in the most barren of places.
Directed by: Erica Monde
Produced by: Clara Harris
Developed, Supported and Executive Produced by Short Circuit, BFI Network and Screen Scotland
https://shortcircuit.scot/sharp-shorts-2023-awardees-announced/
I was born in the month of the moon
Short Documentary
2020 - current
United Kingdom
Short Documentary
2020 - current
United Kingdom
In production
One day the filmmaker wakes up and cannot move. As phases of celestial bodies continue outside their window, dreams and memories begin to emerge: they can finally start hearing what their body has to say. Set against the backdrop of their empty flat in Scotland and childhood memories of the Californian landscape, i was born in the month of the moon is a meditative reflection on the fluidity of gender, the meaning of home, and the journey to finding one’s body again.
This short film is currently being filmed, tracking changes in the body from the start of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic until 2030.
Directed by: Erica Monde
Produced by: Theo Panagopoulos, Erica Monde
Editing: Erica Monde
Cinematography: Theo Panagopoulos
a Two Halves/No Whole and IMPRINT production
One day the filmmaker wakes up and cannot move. As phases of celestial bodies continue outside their window, dreams and memories begin to emerge: they can finally start hearing what their body has to say. Set against the backdrop of their empty flat in Scotland and childhood memories of the Californian landscape, i was born in the month of the moon is a meditative reflection on the fluidity of gender, the meaning of home, and the journey to finding one’s body again.
This short film is currently being filmed, tracking changes in the body from the start of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic until 2030.
Directed by: Erica Monde
Produced by: Theo Panagopoulos, Erica Monde
Editing: Erica Monde
Cinematography: Theo Panagopoulos
a Two Halves/No Whole and IMPRINT production
You shouldn’t be able to see the Mountains
Short Documentary
2022
Glasgow, UK
Short Documentary
2022
Glasgow, UK
The director has recently had a dream and wants to share it with you. Constructed using personal archival footage of mountains from Nepal, Greece, Scotland, the US and Spain, this short documentary explores the embodied presence of climate change in the unconscious mind.
Directed and Edited by: Erica Monde
Produced by: Imprint Documentary Collective
Directed and Edited by: Erica Monde
Produced by: Imprint Documentary Collective
A portrait of the Pacific composed of images of the Mediterranean
Video Installation
2019
Spain
Video Installation
2019
Spain
A video collage constructed of non-identifiable shapes, which, when combined into a single frame and filled with recognizable footage, allow us to recognize a virtually constructed composition as some thing identifiable. The transitional moments between visual information which “makes sense” in its constructed framework and the reassembled visions of the same parts encourages us to ask:
When is the precise moment at which we understand something to be some thing and not some thing else? The piece intends to overcome essentialism by encouraging the viewer to reflect upon ways of knowing which depend upon visual identification, by offering a new image of a knowable thing; familiar yet different, existing just as profoundly in its virtual singularity as a dynamic, contextual, and changeable thing, where what matters is not knowing “what something is”, but instead understanding “how something is".
A film by: Erica Monde
In collaboration with Metafora Studio Arts
When is the precise moment at which we understand something to be some thing and not some thing else? The piece intends to overcome essentialism by encouraging the viewer to reflect upon ways of knowing which depend upon visual identification, by offering a new image of a knowable thing; familiar yet different, existing just as profoundly in its virtual singularity as a dynamic, contextual, and changeable thing, where what matters is not knowing “what something is”, but instead understanding “how something is".
A film by: Erica Monde
In collaboration with Metafora Studio Arts