Geographies of Solitude

Jacquelyn Mills’ second feature film, acclaimed within the documentary world both locally and internationally, Geographies of Solitude follows in the footsteps of her previous work, In the Waves (2017), which portrays another woman—her grandmother—an elderly, strong, and deeply moving figure. In the Waves also opens with a shot of the waves of Nova Scotia, Mills’ home province. Her work carries a clear intention: to make us feel before making us understand, a sensory movement toward nature as a means of accessing the other.

Using film, contact microphones, and her poetic eye, Jacquelyn Mills offers an experiential film that highlights the intimate and ritualized aspect of scientific practice. Zoe Lucas’s complete devotion to preserving Sable Island, the meticulousness of her work, day after day, the care she puts into collecting information, counting specimens, and recording data, reveals a certain ethics of care, which is also reflected in Mills’ filmmaking. Supported by deliberate aesthetic choices, the filmmaker’s gaze on the naturalist emphasizes the interdependence and vulnerability of the various elements of the environment with which she shares such a close bond.

Aimé Majeau Beauchamp
Filmmaker



Excerpt from “Geographies of Solitude : un grain de sable dans l’image” a text by Aimé Majeau Beauchamp
published in the Spirale magazine dossier Regards naturalistes : voir en haute définition