Synopsis
Geographies of Solitude is an immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island and the life of Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived over 40 years on this remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Shot on 16mm and created using a scope of innovative eco-friendly filmmaking techniques, this feature-length experimental documentary is a playful and reverent collaboration with an island and its caretaker.
A word from Tënk
Jacquelyn Mills’ second feature film, acclaimed within the documentary world both locally and internationally, Geographies of Solitude follows in the footsteps of her previous work, In the Waves (2017), which portrays another woman—her grandmother—an elderly, strong, and deeply moving figure. In the Waves also opens with a shot of the waves of Nova Scotia, Mills’ home province. Her work carries a clear intention: to make us feel before making us understand, a sensory movement toward nature as a means of accessing the other.
Using film, contact microphones, and her poetic eye, Jacquelyn Mills offers an experiential film that highlights the intimate and ritualized aspect of scientific practice. Zoe Lucas’s complete devotion to preserving Sable Island, the meticulousness of her work, day after day, the care she puts into collecting information, counting specimens, and recording data, reveals a certain ethics of care, which is also reflected in Mills’ filmmaking. Supported by deliberate aesthetic choices, the filmmaker’s gaze on the naturalist emphasizes the interdependence and vulnerability of the various elements of the environment with which she shares such a close bond.
Aimé Majeau Beauchamp
Filmmaker
Excerpt from “Geographies of Solitude : un grain de sable dans l’image” a text by Aimé Majeau Beauchamp
published in the Spirale magazine dossier Regards naturalistes : voir en haute définition
