Toronto and NYFF preview. At Sea.

"I discovered Friday night that what I had wanted from Jennifer Baichwal's [Manufactured Landscapes] was, in fact, something closer in spirit to Peter Hutton's At Sea, a 60-minute, silent triptych about the birth, life, and death of a modern ship," writes Darren Hughes.

"Of the many films worth anticipating in the New York Film Festival's eleventh annual Views from the Avant-Garde (including new works by Ernie Gehr, Ken Jacobs and Peggy Ahwesh), two that can already be considered highlights come from veteran artists Robert Beavers and Peter Hutton," writes Kevin B Lee, reviewing At Sea and Beavers's Pitcher of Colored Light at the House Next Door. "While one film is shot within the safe confines of a single home and the other depicts a maritime odyssey with epic views of endless ocean, both employ vivid palettes of light and color to evoke feelings of adventurous movement through time and space, underscored by a creeping sense of mortality."

"Hutton finds visual patterns in waves and ocean rain that no one let alone James Cameron seems to have thought of before," writes Vadim Rizov at the Reeler. "Two shots in particular stand out: One is of the boat's deck red-painted awning repeatedly swinging over and covering the sea, red and blue battling it out for on-screen color supremacy. The other is an astounding, desaturated shot of black-and-white waves forming patterns so dense and shimmery it seems like if you stared long enough, a secret 3D image might pop out. At Sea isn't consistent from beginning to end, but at least a portion of it is some of [NYFF's] must-see viewing."

Posted by dwhudson at September 25, 2007 7:36 AM