Alexander Pecenko's Visual Diary

The New Zealand documentary Ever the Land, directed by Sarah Grohnert, explores the connections between the Ngai Tuhoe — or children of the mist — a Maori tribe of the North Island of New Zealand, their land and their striving for self governance.  The focus is on the construction process of a communal building, with quite detailed commentary on the stages of construction from planning to completion, and the legal and contractual requirements and relations between the Ngai Tuhoe and the New Zealand government.

More background into the significance of the building at the commencement of the documentary would have been useful, although through the course of the piece it is explained.  Furthermore, I consider the use of narration as effective in filling in context and background, although, it would perhaps aid in illustrating the point if contextual shots had been included.

The animated film Red Turtle, directed by Michael Dudok De Wit, portrays a man’s struggles for survival on an island rich with food, animal and plant life, his attempts to leave which are thwarted by the red turtle which then transform into a woman with whom he has a developing bond.

His inability to travel off the island, due to the actions of the turtle symbolise how our actions are affected by others and how one should consider the actions and significance of ones’ actions. His overall dream like disoriented episodes, such as the imagining of musicians on the beach, further underscore the sense of entrapment and yearning for connection with humanity.

The 2D animation style and contemplative music fittingly presents the flowing and mystique state of the water and island. The use of the colour and black and white/sepia effectively conveys the contrasting nature of the dream like night-time imaginings and daytime realities of life on the island for the main character. I appreciated the silent nature of the animation since I consider it important that the means of storytelling is visual rather than overly relying on dialogue.