Dust

Name: Dust
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2026-05-31
Duration: 51 min

<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">In a remote corner of Botswana, where the Okavango Delta dissolves into the baking sands of the Kalahari, water and desert are locked in a perpetual struggle. <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">DUST<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> follows that battle over the course of a year through flood and dust, abundance and starvation anchored by the longest terrestrial zebra migration in Africa and the animals whose lives hinge on the arrival of rain.<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">At the heart of the story is the Boteti River and the vast Makgadikgadi salt pans, where water rarely lingers but life still insists on trying. As floodwaters from Angola pulse south, the Boteti swells into a narrow lifeline. Elephants, hippos, zebra, and wildebeest crowd its banks, while lions, cheetahs, jackals, and elusive brown hyenas track their every move. As the heat intensifies, the river shrinks, grass turns to dust, and desperate animals are forced into increasingly dangerous encounters at muddy wallows, shrinking pools, and along treacherous riverbanks where one misstep can be fatal.<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">When the desert finally wins and the water retreats into the sand, thousands of zebra face a brutal choice: stay and starve, or chase distant storm clouds into the Makgadikgadi. Their journey carries us into the intimate lives of the desert’s permanent residents meerkats standing sentry at dawn, brown hyenas surviving on scraps, and flamingos arriving by the tens of thousands when shallow pans briefly brim with water and life. For a brief window, the desert transforms into a shimmering inland sea of green grass and pink wings…before the heat returns, the water vanishes, and the herds are forced to move on once more.<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Shot by an award-winning cinematographer and recipient of multiple cinematography honors, <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">DUST<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> blends big-screen spectacle with emotional, character-driven storytelling. It’s a blue-chip, visually arresting natural history film with powerful, timely themes: climate, water, resilience, and the cost of survival in a rapidly changing world. DocumentaryPT51M2026-05-31

Chris Fischer is an international award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer who has spent his career working close to large mammals in the wild

lions in Africa

wolves and bison in Yellowstone. The films come out of long hours in the field and a real respect for the animals he points a camera at. He started as a photographer

and 25 years behind a stills camera shaped how he frames a shot

reads light

and moves through a scene. He tends to favor presence over spectacle. The aim is to give an audience the sense of actually being there with the animal

watching it behave the way it would whether or not anyone was filming. He has also worked in newer formats

producing the VR wildlife series Close Encounters across several locations in Africa

which was distributed internationally. It was a chance to try a more experiential kind of storytelling without losing the steadier

observational tone of his other work. Chris is at home in remote and physically demanding places

and he plans international productions carefully. He also brings international licensing and broadcast experience to the table

along with a background in finance that helps on the practical side

budgets

logistics

keeping a shoot on track from first scout through final delivery. What runs through all of it is an invitation: come sit with this animal for a while

in a moment most people will never get to see.

Dust"Dust"

Showtimes

May 31, 7:00 pm