Music by John Drumheller

One hears in the sea's call the feeling of a promise made to us before birth, that we can know the world not merely as an atlas of things seen, but rather as a continuum of felt experience in which it is impossible to distinguish between our selves and the world around us: self and other are melded into one. The search for this oceanic experience leads to adventures both peaceful and dangerous, both exciting and sublime - fraught with an often overwhelming sense of anticipation. As, in this case, a journey to the seaside: seeking and arriving at the boundary between land and water, a mirror to the state of our existence, both here and there, wanting always to cross over, but finally only able to look at where we cannot go. To the Beach explores this feeling from three vantage points, filmed (respectively) near, in, and under the sea using a variety of techniques, and registers the resulting images onto hand-made film emulsion.

I. Approaching the Shore: in which the ocean first offers its irresistible salty scent.

II. Swimming: in which we become again what we are.

III. Seeing Stars: as above, so below.