Fore-and-Aft

Directed by Sara MacLean

Fore-and-Aft was created by the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada--site of the highest tides in the world. Images of the tides are married with celluloid that was buried in the sea bed and dragged through the ocean behind a boat, recording tactile evidence of the repetition and changes wrought by the cycles. Images of the Bluenoes (the famous fore-and-aft rigged racing schooner from Nova Scotia whose likeness graces the Canadian ten cent coin) float ominously on top of the tides, never coming into clear focus and instead dissolving into wet ink droplets and reforming, merging with and re-emerging from the sea. The film stares up from the sea bed, glimpsing and grasping at light through the ocean itself. Like the Bluenose it ultimately becomes one with the sea as the tides consume the film