Jeff Daniel Silva

Below the surface, the alien is us. Filmed entirely underwater with natural light and ambient sound, MARE SAPIENS moves through the Bay of Marseille as a space where living forms, infrastructures, and machines coexist. The film assembles a sensory field without commentary or hierarchy, letting the sea appear not as background or resource, but as a milieu that absorbs, resists, and persists.

This documentary blends travelogue, memoir, and visual poetry to chronicle filmmaker Jeff Daniel Silva’s journeys through Serbia and Kosovo in the aftermath of the NATO bombings and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Through personal encounters, archival footage, and conversations with figures such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, Silva explores the contradictions, resilience, and humanity he finds amid a region shaped by war. Structured around 78 episodic segments mirroring the 78 days of NATO's 1999 bombing campaign, the film paints a poignant and often humorous portrait of life in the Balkans during the Milošević era.

An aging clockmaker repairs watches and recounts his memories as a political prisoner during the Romanian dictatorship. A film about routine, resilience and the echoes of time.

Below the surface, the alien is us. Filmed entirely underwater with natural light and ambient sound, MARE SAPIENS moves through the Bay of Marseille as a space where living forms, infrastructures, and machines coexist. The film assembles a sensory field without commentary or hierarchy, letting the sea appear not as background or resource, but as a milieu that absorbs, resists, and persists.

This documentary blends travelogue, memoir, and visual poetry to chronicle filmmaker Jeff Daniel Silva’s journeys through Serbia and Kosovo in the aftermath of the NATO bombings and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Through personal encounters, archival footage, and conversations with figures such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, Silva explores the contradictions, resilience, and humanity he finds amid a region shaped by war. Structured around 78 episodic segments mirroring the 78 days of NATO's 1999 bombing campaign, the film paints a poignant and often humorous portrait of life in the Balkans during the Milošević era.

An aging clockmaker repairs watches and recounts his memories as a political prisoner during the Romanian dictatorship. A film about routine, resilience and the echoes of time.