Geographies of Solitude
Naturalist and researcher Zoe Lucas catalogues flora and fauna on remote Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a place she has called home for 40 years.
This intimate documentary, shot on 16mm film and developed using eco-friendly methods, follows the naturalist and researcher Zoe Lucas as she meticulously catalogues flora and fauna on remote Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a place she has called home for 40 years.
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Crescent-shaped Sable Island is located about 300 kilometres southeast of Halifax. Self-taught scientist Lucas, who first set foot on the island as an art student in the 1970s, is among its few human inhabitants; her neighbours are mostly wild horses, sparrows, and untold species of invertebrates. As we witness the friendship between director Jacquelyn Mills and her subject unfold delicately onscreen, Mills explores the wonders of the island’s extraordinary ecosystem while immersing us in Lucas’s life and work. A poetic meditation on nature, technology, environmentalism, patience, and solitude, the film features stunning images of Sable’s shores, little dialogue, and a soundscape created with handmade microphones, eliciting melodies of the island itself. Geographies of Solitude is part field journal, part photographic investigation, and entirely innovative in its approach.
Winner, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale; Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs