This film is part of Rentals
Estuary
Tides rise and fall and the landscape twists around the camera.
Director: Chris Welsby
Overview
Estuary presents a very different type of experience of film time and being to which we might ordinarily be familiar. Shot over three-days on a boat moored in the Keyhaven bay, fluctuations in tide, light, weather and cloud formation and the passing of day into night are captured through intermittent scanning of the horizon and pre-structured decisions about when to shoot and how.
Viewing Estuary is uncanny, meditative experience where simplicity becomes, at times, highly arresting. Perhaps akin to what is often now called slow cinema, it occupies an uncanny midway point between a metrological scientific experiment and a traditional landscape painting. A four second section of the film was exposed every fifteen minutes between dawn and dusk. For over fifty years now, artist Chris Welsby has explored the properties of the both landscape and weather systems through the formal qualities of film and digital. His works provides an important record of our changing relationship with the environment whilst highlighting the potential for far greater levels of sensitivities towards the worlds in which we, not just live, but are intrinsically part of and emanate.
Related
Kensuke's Kingdom Kensuke's Kingdom
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2023 84 mins Director: Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry
Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel is brought to life in this delightful, animated tale of a young castaway who discovers he’s not alone.
Robot Dreams Robot Dreams
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2023 103 mins Director: Pablo Berger
Spanish director Pablo Berger delivers a rich and emotionally engaging dialogue-free animation about friendship, set in a bustling 1980s New York City.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2022 108 mins Director: Pierre Földes
Impressive and captivating animated adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short stories.
Times For Times For
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1970 80 mins Silent Director: Stephen Dwoskin
Four characters go through a series of deeply emotional, psychedelic, sensual, sexual encounters, evoking the times and textures of the 1960s underground.
Belle Belle
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2021 122 mins Director: Mamoru Hosoda
High-school student Suzu finds her voice in an incredible virtual world that allows everyday people to become extraordinary.
Flee Flee
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2021 83 mins Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance Film Festival, Flee is a testament to friendship, family and acceptance.
Small Things Like These Small Things Like These
Drama 2024 99 mins
Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy delivers a stunning performance as a coal merchant who discovers horrific secrets about his local convent.
Only the River Flows Only the River Flows
Crime 2023 102 mins Director: Shujun Wei
Shujun Wei's slow-burn noir draws us inexorably into its mysterious psychological journey.
The Critic The Critic
Period drama 2023 101 mins Director: Anand Tucker
Ian McKellen is in delicious form as London's most vicious critic, who strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actor (Gemma Arterton).
Special People Special People
Comedy 2008 74 mins Director: Justin Edgar
Justin Edgar's pioneering feature comedy about a neurotic filmmaker enlisted to make a film with a class of wheelchair-users.
Timestalker Timestalker
Comedy 2024 89 mins Director: Alice Lowe
What if unrequited love spanned the centuries? Alice Lowe's time-jumping fantasy rom-com is a colourful, darkly funny treat.
South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic
Documentary 1919 81 mins Silent Director: Frank Hurley
An extraordinary story of survival in the wastes of Antarctica.