Microcinema: Daniel Bachman - The Witness Tree

Microcinema: Daniel Bachman – The Witness Tree is a film and music presentation exploring the histories held by 16 Virginia trees. Over two years, musician and scholar Daniel Bachman interviewed the trees using a biodata sonification device created by Philadelphia artist and engineer @electricityforprogress, translating their living experience into sound.

The resulting work is a nearly two-hour album and feature-length documentary that connects Virginia’s trees and landscapes to settler colonialism, racial hierarchy, extractive capitalism, and the accelerating effects of climate breakdown. The journey moves through eroding Chesapeake Bay beaches and former plantation grounds, Civil War battlefields, old-growth forests, Piedmont river bottoms, and the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. A question-and-answer session with Bachman follows the screening.

When: Thursday, November 5, 2026

Showtimes: 7:00 PM–10:00 PM

Venue: Rhizome DC

Tickets: $10–20

Run time: Nearly two hours

Featured artist: Daniel Bachman

Q&A: A Q&A with Daniel Bachman follows the screening.

About Daniel Bachman: Bachman is an artist, musician, and independent scholar whose work focuses primarily on the folk histories of Virginia. He has released 14 full-length records since 2011 and has toured extensively in the United States and internationally. In recent years, he has shifted away from a demanding touring schedule to develop multimedia projects examining Virginia’s history of settler colonialism and its relationship to contemporary climate breakdown. He lives in Madison County, Virginia, with his partner, Aldona Dye, and their cat, Little Baby.