point of contact

DOSSIER 2006
The official online publication of the
Syracuse International Film Festival, Vol.3
A Point of Contact Production

Sea Change - U.K.
Joe King & Rosie Pedlow, Directors
5.28 minutes, documentary

Film Review by Leo Crandall

There is relentlessness and grace to Sea Change. From beginning to end, both in its audio and visual components there is implacable movement, an unyielding fascination.

Though this movement gives unity to the piece it does so through a variety of contrasting components. The players and the environment continually shift. The parade of motor homes rolls across the screen in day and then in night. This transition from light to dark occurs several times providing the measured macro-rhythm of the film.

Over this, a more ornamental motif appears. The players weave in and out of mobile homes. Like the environment, they continually shift. A boy on a bike is replaced by a car which is replaced by a man walking a dog, and so on…

Even these elements are subsidiary, details adorning the larger methodical pulse. It is a measured push, a drive from the first bark of a seagull to the last lovely, uplifting image of a restless tree against the sky.