Materia Prima + Q&A
Saturday, 12 September, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Location
Montrose PlayhouseThe Mall
Montrose, Angus, Angus DD10 8NN
United Kingdom
Google map and directions
UK Premiere.
Beneath the Bolivian Andes lie some of the world’s most coveted lithium deposits: the raw material promised as essential to Europe’s green transition. In Materia Prima, director Jens Schanze follows the contemporary scramble for this “new gold”, from diplomatic meetings and industrial ambitions to the highland communities asked to live with its consequences.
The film is alert to the seductive language of progress — opportunity, development, sustainability — while keeping its gaze on those who recognise an older story. In rural Bolivia, women-led movements challenge a model of extraction that echoes five centuries of colonial dispossession. Threaded through the film is a 16th-century chronicle, held in a Danish royal library, which brings the past into unsettling conversation with the present.
Expansive, rigorous and politically charged, Materia Prima asks one of the defining questions of the climate era: what happens when the future still depends on taking from someone else’s land?
🎤 Followed by a live Q&A with Marcela Lizcano and Tatiana Vila, impact producers for South America, and Ben Kempas, impact producer for the UK and Europe.
After the Credits: From Story to Action
Free Impact Session after the screening
After the screening and Q&A, audiences are warmly invited to join us in the Activity Room at Montrose Playhouse to explore how films like Materia Prima can move from story to action.
💬 This film is subtitled. The introduction and post-film Q&A will be live captioned (CART). Learn more about access at the festival →
Director: Jens Schanze
Country: Germany
Year: 2026
Running time: 89 minutes
Languages: English, Spanish, Aymara and Quechua, with English subtitles
Rating: NC 12A
Country: Germany
Year: 2026
Running time: 89 minutes
Languages: English, Spanish, Aymara and Quechua, with English subtitles
Rating: NC 12A
Guests
Marcela Lizcano
Impact Producer, Nodo Sur
Marcela is a producer, audiovisual director, and impact strategist. Founder of Nodo Sur with Tatiana Vila, and founder of Viceversa Cine, a Colombian audiovisual production company specializing in creative documentaries and artistic collaborations. Her creative journey has focused on documentary narratives that explore the relationship with territory, as well as pedagogy. With Viceversa Cine, she produced the documentaries Aislados, A Loss of Something Ever Felt, Suspensión, and the COLLAB VR platform.
Tatiana Vila
Impact Producer, Nodo Sur
Tatiana is a producer, biologist, and has a Masters in Environment and Development. She is the founder of Latin American social justice and impact organisation Nodo Sur and Endémica Studios production company. Her work has focused on the production of environmental and nature documentaries, television series, and communication strategies for social change. Through these initiatives, she aims to strengthen the social and environmental impact cinema ecosystem in Colombia.
Ben Kempas
Impact Producer, Film & Campaign
Ben is the founder of Film & Campaign Ltd, specialising in impact campaigns and audience engagement for documentaries. With over a decade of experience, he helps filmmakers drive social change through strategic outreach and innovative virtual events. His work includes Die Kinder der Utopie (mobilising 20,000 visitors across 170 German cinemas), I Am Breathing (global screening day across 50 countries), and The Oil Machine. A former producer at Scottish Documentary Institute, Ben also co-hosted The D-Word, fostering a global network of 20,000 documentary professionals. He now focuses on pioneering digital distribution models.
With Short Film: You Told Us to Talk About the Weather
Narrated by Michael Sheen and shot on a rewilded Norfolk farm, this poetic short asks why a nation fluent in weather talk finds climate change so hard to name, following a child through a landscape — and a future — in transition.
🎤 Followed by a live Q&A with director Harry Tomlin
💬 This film is subtitled. The introduction and post-film Q&A will be live captioned (CART). Learn more about access at the festival →
Director: Harry Tomlin
Country: UK
Year: 2025
Running time: 5 minutes
Language: English
Rating: NC PG
Country: UK
Year: 2025
Running time: 5 minutes
Language: English
Rating: NC PG
Guest
Harry Tomlin
Director, You Told Us To Talk About the Weather
Harry is an award winning, BAFTA-Albert educated director originally from Brighton. His recent projects include short film Heel Drop, in partnership with somesuch, and creative direction for global fashion brand Uooyaa as well as several music videos. Harry’s debut feature, A Fluorescent Sky, found festival success and is now available on Prime Video. Harry has also worked closely with Brighton City Council foster care to produce advocacy content. Harry is a climate-conscious filmmaker who is excited to finally bring his environmental passion to a project with a vital message.
Materia Prima: Impact Exchange is supported by the British Council in partnership with the Independent Cinema Office.