Synopsis
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The Jury of the 2013 Tromsø International Film Festival awarded ...Even That Void the prestigious Tromsø Palm for "Best Film From The North", calling it "an excellent example of artistic ambition, brilliant sound design and unconventional narrative. It offers a subtle and also personal approach to the essential questions of mankind."
"...Even That Void looks gorgeous and will resonate with many at a time when the official notion of "environmentalism" as an "ism" is no longer working...The film's imagined future is dead on and I look forward to seeing what I'm sure will be a brilliant film." "...beautiful footage" "The documentary is beautifully shot and ladled with atmospheric images." There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void is an ecological film for the 21st century. It is a film about the future of our planet that turns the traditional environmental documentary on its head. Rather than looking at our influence on the environment, ...Even That Void examines the environment's influence on us - emotionally, psychologically and ethically. The film suggests that the limits to exploring and dominating nature are no longer technological, but moral. We now have the technology to "conquer" virtually any part of the planet if we want to - the question is no longer "can we" but "should we"? ...Even That Void was shot over a two and a half week sailing voyage on a tall ship carrying twenty artists around Norway's remote Arctic islands. The documentary chronicles the bizarre, surreal and beautiful work of the artists, living aboard the ship, landing daily and making work in response to the extreme environment and innate poetry of the Arctic landscape. The film's narration is composed of audio interviews with the artists and the Director's reading of his lyrical expedition journals. While the footage is real, the plot - inspired by the other-worldliness of the location and recent events in the Director's own life - is fictional. The Director imagines the artists as a team of specialists sent on a mission in the near future to rebuild the Arctic environment after it has been decimated by global warming. With no master plan, maps or blueprints, each artist recreates the Arctic of his or her own memories, fears, desires and (flawed) expectations. The film follows a typical expedition narrative - a ship sets sail on a hazardous mission with a motley crew of experts. Will they succeed in their mission? Will they return safely? But the standard adventure plot becomes a surreal dream-like futurist fantasy. The sense of wonder at the landscape is balanced by darker contemporary concerns: global warming, the Arctic resource race, the political tension of a militarised Arctic and the disappearance of the last great wilderness. Ultimately, the film is a love-letter to the Arctic: obsessive, tumultuous, affectionate, heart-breaking. The demise of the Arctic environment is felt as the death of a family member. The title is taken from a letter Johannes Kepler wrote to Galileo Galilei in 1610, musing on the future of space travel. "Provide ship or sails adapted to the heavenly breezes," Kepler hypothesised, "and there will be some who will not fear even that void." FEATURED ARTISTS THE FILMMAKING TEAM
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