The Weight of Mountains (TWOM) is a nomadic artist residency and platform for film and media artists, immersing artists in a new location every 2 - 4 years. In doing so, over decades we hope that TWOM will create a larger ongoing conversation about how humanity is intertwined with global environments. 

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The Weight of Mountains is conceptually based on notions of how the human gaze, cognition, and body meets it’s environment. Ideas encompass psycho-geography, the nature-culture symbiosis, the cosmic or residual echoes of time and place, undercurrents, landscape as character: the truths and myths that humans impress upon the surrounding locations in which they live.

We partner with arts organisations globally and curate filmmakers working with these ideas who can work site-specifically and handle extreme changes to their typical context. 

Past selected filmmakers have gone on to present film or media artwork that they’ve created during our residency at TIFF, RIFF (Reykjavik), 57th Venice Biennale, no.w.here London, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, IFFRotterdam, The Weight of Mountains Film Festival, National Geographic, Sundance, KIAC Dawson City, CBC, National Museum of Art Osaka (permanent collection) and a plethora of galleries and film events worldwide.

Founded by Melody Woodnutt and Timothy Despina Marshall, the residency program importantly extracts filmmakers from their home-base contexts to enable focused opportunity for intensive processes and practice based professional development. It aims to innovate new discoveries in contemporary filmmaking, to initiate new artistic development, to facilitate progressive discussion in contemporary practice, to present new unique challenges for artists that push their boundaries or enable new adapted skill sets to emerge; and most importantly to connect like minded forward-thinking artists working in film today.