Around the Compass Rose: Human Geographies on Film

Event information

In this screening, Around the Compass Rose: Human Geographies on Film, the London Underground Film Festival presents three documentaries that explore human interpretations of landscape, from nostalgia for "home" in North America to the experience of being a stranger in Eastern Europe, through the use of interviews, oral histories, and the relation of reminiscences.


PROGRAMME


WILD WEST (2010)

Director: Hannah Beadman (UK/US)
Duration: 25 min.

Beautifully photographed in widescreen 16mm film, Wild West is a 25 minute experimental documentary. It tells the story of the Great Basin desert through the eyes of the land: past, present and future, celebrating the natural beauty of this awe-inspiring yet fragile area of California, Nevada and Utah.

Narration is from a series of interviews with the late Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, water doctor and anti-nuclear activist, then aged 86. Corbin circles back in time, remembering balance and harmony. Survival in these vast deserts was dependent then on intuition, cooperation and communication with animal, spirit, plant and elements:

As an archetypal wounded healer, his own life's tragedies and joys, intimately linked with the land, weave a delicate 'right path' through this wilderness of yesterday and today.

http://www.wildwestdesert.com/


AU SOLEIL (2010)

Director: Josh Wedlake (UK)
Duration: 16 min.

Au Soleil is an animated documentary based on the director's memories of a cycling trip he undertook across Eastern Europe from Berlin to Istanbul. Wedlake travelled with three close friends on a journey lasting one month, through incredible scenery in the isolated backwaters of Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey crossing the Beskids and the Carpathians. "The locals were nothing but friendly and helpful and the trip shattered my many jaded stereotypes. By the end, though, exhaustion left me longing for home."


FAITH, HOPE, AND GREENLAND (2009)

Director: Ivalo Frank (GL/DEN)
Duration: 32 min.

Faith, Hope, and Greeland is a poetic journey into the hearts of the people of Greenland. Based on interviews with leading representatives from the art world - including film producer Mikisoq Lynge, visual artist Julie Edel Hardenberg, actress Makka Kleist and musician Peter Tuusi Motzfeldt - the film reveals their dreams for a contemporary Greenlandic society.

Ivalo Frank's documentary is, in contrast to the classical portraits of stunning scenery and nomadic hunters and the dark depictions of alcoholism, incest and violence, a film built upon hope. Throughout, we get an idea of the intensity and speed with which the people of this remote country are redefining their collective identity.

http://www.kranfilm.net/


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THOSE WHO LIVE, LIVE OFF THE DEAD

Throughout the 2010 London Underground Film Festival new works by Paul Kindersley will be shown at the Horse Hospital in an exhibition called "Those Who Live, Live Off the Dead". http://www.paulkindersley.co.uk/