The Petroleum Archive (2026): A Film by Ariel West, 2025 UCLA Film & Television Archive Artist-in-Residence

Ariel West is a filmmaker and researcher who works with time-based media to examine how information is stored, organized and circulated. Her practice traces how these systems become embedded in landscapes, histories and memory, shaping what can be seen, remembered and internalized. In 2022, she began investigating petroleum and its American fables, a project that would consume four years of her life and materialize as her undergraduate thesis at Bard College, a 12-week Learning and Mending Series at Metabolic Studios, and a film produced during her time as the 2025 UCLA Film & Television Archive Artist-in-Residence.