USA
6'26'', 2024
DIRECTED BY
Jiachen Sun & Jixuan Guo
PRODUCED BY
Jiachen Sun and Alissa Jordan, and Center for Experimental Ethnography
SCRIPTWRITER
Jixuan Guo
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Jiachen Sun
EDITED BY
Jiachen Sun & Jixuan Guo
The Edge of the Sky is a three-channel nonlinear film that is as much an experiment in ethnographic audiovisual relation as it is about the way the past is surfacing in Greenland as the present landscape melts and rusts away. The film juxtaposes the scenes of everyday life and imagination for Greenlanders against a landscape increasingly sculpted in alien ways by aging projects of colonial modernization and infrastructure. It probes the way identity, belonging, and place shift with the rising global temperature and the subsequent melting of glaciers, exposing the past as both as at once a revelation, an intrusion, and a dumping ground. Identities melt like the land: passing from hunter, to pagan, to monster, to ancestor.
Jiachen Sun
Director
Jiachen Sun is an affiliated scholar at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania, where her work sits at the intersection of experimental filmmaking, animation, and ethnography. Her practice delves deeply into the lived experiences of post-colonial communities in the Pan-Arctic Circle, focusing particularly on the shifting landscapes of Greenland and northern China. Through her films, Sun explores how histories of colonial modernization resurface in contemporary life, revealing layers of identity, belonging, and cultural memory that melt and transform alongside the rapidly changing environment. She was recognized for design excellence in 2024 through the American Society of Landscape Architects and has exhibited internationally, including at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, the Penn Museum, and the Morgan Gallery. Currently, she is directing her second experimental film, continuing to push the boundaries of how we perceive and narrate the complexities of melting landscapes and the cultures that inhabit them.
Jixuan (Solomon) Guo
Co-Director
Jixuan (Solomon) Guo is an affiliated scholar at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania. As a founder of SoLandscape Studios, Guo bridges the realms of landscape architecture, experimental ethnography, and contemporary art. His practice is deeply rooted in the study of the Pan-Arctic Circle, with a current focus on the shifting cultural and ecological landscapes of Northeast China. Born in Inner Mongolia, Guo brings a unique perspective shaped by his upbringing in a region rich with nomadic traditions and rapid modernization. His multidisciplinary background spans sculpture, writing, print media, and painting, allowing him to explore the interplay between memory, place, and identity through a variety of artistic lenses. Guo's work often contemplates themes of displacement, belonging, and the search for home, capturing the complexities of life in regions undergoing profound environmental and social changes.
In 2024, Guo published his first book, Evergoing Home, a bilingual lyrical essay that blends photography with poetic prose. The book reflects on the landscapes and inner worlds of those who inhabit the fringes of the Arctic and its surrounding areas, weaving a narrative that is both personal and universal. His ethnographic research and artistic endeavors have positioned him as an emerging voice in documenting the intersections of cultural heritage and climate change, particularly within marginalized and post-colonial communities. In 2024, he received the Design Excellence Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. His work has been showcased in international exhibitions at prominent venues, such as the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, the Penn Museum, and the Morgan Gallery.