Verena Paravel

Verena Paravel is a French filmmaker, artist, and anthropologist, who blends cinematic experimentation with ethnographic, ecological, and philosophical inquiry. Her films have been shown at international festivals including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Toronto, and the New York Film Festival. Works such as Foreign Parts (2010, with J.P. Sniadecki), Leviathan (2012), Caniba (2017), Somniloquies (2018), and De Humani Corporis Fabrica (2022, with Lucien Castaing-Taylor) have received widespread critical acclaim and have been honored with numerous international awards.

At the Institute, Paravel will research COSMOFONIA, a project that investigates how cinema can reconfigure human perception by shifting focus from the visual to the acoustic. Working with scientists and using advanced recording technologies, she explores forms of audible life and vibration that exceed the limits of the human ear, translating them into an immersive cinematic experience. The project examines listening as both a methodological tool and a political act, revealing ecological interdependence and the pervasive presence of human noise within fragile environments.