Mezzanine presents FEET IN WATER, HEAD ON FIRE, directed by Terra Long. 2023, 90m, U.S., 16mm-to-digital. Los Angeles premiere! With filmmaker Terra Long in person, followed by a Q&A moderated by Hannah Jayanti ~ We are thrilled to present the overdue L.A. premiere of Terra Long’s stunning documentary portrait of California’s Coachella Valley and the lives of its date palm farmers, shot on beautiful 16mm film. “Terra Long’s feature debut is a breathtaking portrait of California’s Coachella Valley that is both anchored in the specifics of place and community, while freely exploring the limits of cinematic time and space. Shaped by seismic forces of the San Andreas Fault, the Coachella Valley is home to an agricultural community built around the date palm trees introduced to the region in the early 1900s. Today, the land and its people face combined threats from economic upheaval, US immigration policy and climate change. With an elliptical grace, Long’s film spans vast expanses of geological time and sweeping desert landscapes into extreme close-ups of the region’s plant and insect life, where microscopic views of cellular biology trace intimate stories of human connection. Beautifully shot on 16mm film and featuring hand-processing techniques that incorporate plants native to the Coachella Valley into the film, Long’s documentary is grounded in place even on a material level.” -J.C. “Exquisite and sensory...as if listening to the planet getting an ultrasound.” - Brett Story, Filmmaker Magazine “In her loosely structured, sensorial documentary, Long maps this history out along the San Andreas Fault, which splinters the state from north to south, capturing the textures and colors of the mountainous valley on gorgeously grainy 16mm… The film’s construction, in part, also relies on human folkloric traditions of storytelling; everyone featured speaks of their experience of life, or their ancestors’ lives, in this region, building a kind of polyphonic, ever-evolving land biography.” -Caitlin Quinlan, Reverse Shot Official Selection: 2023 True/False Film Festival, IDFA, First Look. Special thanks to Malin Kan, Alisha Tejpal and Mireya Martinez.