Across Buenos Aires zoos and rescues, Collective Monologue captures wordless devotion. Argentine-British artist Jessica Sarah Rinland foregrounds an immersive sensory experience rather than narrative, inviting us into intimate cinematic encounters within Argentina’s zoos and animal sanctuaries. Her 16-mm lens lingers on hands feeding flamingos, whispered instructions to anteaters, or an elephant’s deliberate gait through architectural follies, the camera poised with quiet awe.
The film dwells in the tension between enclosure and affection, where historic zoo architecture, surveillance footage, and archival glimpses coexist with scenes of tender caregiving: a monkey cradled as if a child, repairs guided by history buffs, and nocturnal creatures abiding in shadow. Rinland eschews commentary; instead, she trusts texture, sound of footsteps, hushed voices, and ambient hum to form a gentle lattice between viewer, human, and animal.
Celebrated across Locarno, TIFF, San Sebastián (where it earned a Special Mention), London and MoMA DocFortnight, critics praise its “patient, expansive” craft and hypnotic empathy. It feels less like a documentary and more like a living elegy, where care is both gesture and language, and the gaze is shared, not owned.
