WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
WATCH THE FILM HERE with all proceeds going to the filmmakers!
First, the Recap:
Vanishing. Elimination. Extermination. We never, I hope, long for such verbiage to be applied to anything within our own scope of living, that we would not find ourselves surrounded with that which needs to forever be removed, never to return. While there may be such elements in general that we wish to see so radically impacted (ie: war, hunger, poverty, etc), it remains a fact Earth’s history that such levels of disappearance occurred. What if you looked at it as some it being humanity’s fault? An explorer (Jemila MacEwan) discovers herself pondering the gravity and potential responsibility of the Holocene extinction from a deeply human sensibility, even as she finds five massive teeth that she takes ownership of and embarks on a journey through which she learns, mourns, and ideally, finds hope.
Next, my Mind:
The independent/experimental film realm is most certainly the home base for this 30-minute short that screened at the 2020 Berlin Revolution Film Festival courtesy of writer/director/producer/cinematographer MacEwan and assistant director/producer/editor/cinematographer Campbell Watson, providing a decidedly eccentric, immersive, highly allegorical narrative that stretches your imagination as well as your awareness about we as human beings and the hand we have had in this planet’s history, not always in a good way, even as far back as the era the film is alluding to.
Despite its foundationally quirky premise, the film truly takes on and conveys a message that could be construed as both environmentally and socially conscious as it depicts one woman’s adventure in finding facets of the long ago past that place her mind squarely within the time in question and cause her to realize the sheer overwhelming magnitude of what occurred during the Holocene and how much of it can be traced back to humanity’s arrival on the scene and the subsequent impact it had on everything, ecologically and otherwise. Her labor to move the teeth she has over the harsh, unforgiving terrain almost seems in itself like a penance being served.
The effort’s explorations of its title’s term also very much come into play to communicate the narrative’s intent, providing us a myriad of defined moments that all could be attributed to the word “wake”, and each instance has a beautifully orchestrated purpose that further drives the filmmaker’s points home amidst the admittedly odd and stark imagery of the protagonist lugging huge white teeth up hills, over tundra, cliffsides, river shores, and beyond. But in her exhausted state, it is here that she slumbers and dreams of barren landscapes which continues to signify the loss, a remembrance of things once thriving now dead and gone into eternity, that will never exist again.
There is another sequence of instances she encounters that while equally peculiar still bring to light at least some recollections that are good and perhaps even hopeful, though this critic didn’t feel that was ultimately the goal here emotionally. I feel the film should leave you with a sense of sadness, only in that we really do take for granted what humanity has done to this world over the time we’ve been a part of it, and it isn’t some embittered diatribe or even an overtly preachy commentary that’s being made through the film as much as it should make us ascertain the things that have happened, take ownership of what we’ve done, and then strive to do better.
MacEwan does a fine job in presenting us with this impactful odyssey through her role as the explorer, a woman who finds herself on a personal quest, voluntarily undertaken, to become more familiar with the weight of humanity’s part in the Holocene extinction and bear up under the emotional weight she feels from it. It’s really a pilgrimage to an unknown destination, yet she takes it on with every ounce of strength she can muster before literally collapsing under the pressure of it all. But in this, she then learns more through an unexpected source about the lament of an age now gone and, to further dismay, forgotten. MacEwan utilizes her deft skills as a performance artist to really embody the story she’s telling through the character, and it carries a smartly engaging air and fervor to it, an intensity of purpose.
Also, it must be mentioned that beyond the empathetically-driven narrative and the substance of it, the cinematography is fantastic here, gorgeously illustrating the harder yet awe-inspiring beauty of the Icelandic venues where the effort was filmed. So, in total, “The Wake” is a statement to the world through a genuinely sympathetic eye that should stimulate us to think more about our relationship as people to the natural world around us as well as between ourselves so that we might find much more constructive and positive ways to change things for the better that ALL may encounter and enjoy what has been so graciously provided for us.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
