Date: 11 November 2010 | Season: Films of the Sea
FILMS OF THE SEA: 1
Thursday 11 November 2010, at 8pm
Naples Fondazione Morra
In all of the arts, the ocean has been a constant source of inspiration, from Hokusai to JMW Turner, or from ‘Moby Dick’ to ‘Titanic’. As an emblem of endless possibilities, it might lead to discovery or tragedy, new lives or lives lost. These seven films are ‘of the sea’ in that they draw inspiration from it, but they are far from straightforward depictions. Peter Hutton, a former merchant seaman, has made many films of ships and seascapes. His most recent and most celebrated is At Sea, which traces the life cycle of massive container ships. David Gatten made his abstract film without a camera, by submerging unexposed lengths of film in the ocean. The second programme seeks out narrative through tall tales and maritime folklore. Slipping between dreams and reality, it includes the surreal (Maya Deren), the erotic (Matthias Müller) and childhood fantasy (Janie Geiser). Mati Diop follows a stowaway from Africa to Europe, and Rebecca Meyers explores the perils of seafaring off the American coast. “What the sea wants, the sea will have.”
Peter Hutton, At Sea, USA, 2007, 60 min
David Gatten, What the Water Said Nos 4-6, USA, 2006, 17 min
Curated by Mark Webber for the Independent Film Show 10th Edition
PROGRAMME NOTES
AT SEA
Peter Hutton
2007, USA, 16mm, colour, silent, 60 min
“Peter Hutton has modestly spoken of his work as being ‘a little detour’ from the history of cinema but perhaps he is following a path that others have neglected, or are yet to discover. Typified by fixed shots of extended duration, his concentrated gaze builds a bridge between early cinema, landscape painting and still photography, evoking Lumière, Turner and Stieglitz. Hutton’s camera often records the subtle changes of light and atmospheric conditions of rural and urban locations, and has frequently been directed toward nautical themes. This new film is essentially about the birth, life and death of large merchant ships. Following the construction of the vessels in South Korea and the passage of a massive container ship across the North Atlantic, it ends with images of shipbreaking in Bangladesh. At Sea is a real tour-de-force, in which the weight and scale of its subject is conveyed by masterful cinematography over a series of breathtaking compositions.” (Mark Webber)
WHAT THE WATER SAID, NOS 4-6
David Gatten
2006, USA, 16mm, colour, sound, 17 min
“What the water said is literally inscribed on the strips of unexposed celluloid that Gatten cast into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. Encased in crab traps, the fragmented filmstrips harbour mystical messages from the underwater world, a source of seemingly never-ending fascination. The sea, its salt, sand and rocks, and its gnawing creatures have created the film’s inimitable textured patterns and sounds, while passages from Western literature’s greatest sea odysseys – from ‘The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe’ to ‘Moby Dick’ – remind us of the sea’s singular place in our imagination.” (Andréa Picard)
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