“I think of these films as oceanic self-portraits. The sea makes its own image. What we see in the frame are the ingredients that develop the film: seaweed and salt water.”

From theatre, visual arts, writing, and narrative film, my creative projects have been enhanced by adventurous life experiences including a welder’s apprenticeship on the Alberta pipeline, training horses, tree planting, and a brief stint doing phone sex. With a background in digital filmmaking I discovered hand processing celluloid during my master’s degree. When the pandemic hit, and the school closed down, I couldn’t get into the darkroom so I turned towards the natural world both as solace and to be creatively autonomous.

In my eco-processing filmmaking practice I am collaborating with the sea and making 16mm films of waves as the water rolls up onto the land. I think of these films as oceanic self-portraits. The sea makes its own image. What we see in the frame are the ingredients that develop the film: seaweed and salt water. Each roll of film reflects the properties of its shoreline in colour, rhythm and texture.

I often use steel as a projection surface. Steel has been chosen for its reflective quality and ability to interact with the projector’s beam in high ambient light conditions. It is generous but not easily manipulated. Other than extreme heat, the only thing that can change it is water, given enough time. The steel screen serves a metaphorical return as well: seaweed has a high iron content and these films made with seaweed are projected onto an iron surface that contains the same element as the images.

Like returns to like. Making films with the sea brings forward ancient relationships with matter. I’m learning to see through the camera in a different way, one that is more about inviting an image than ‘capturing’ or ‘shooting’. This new perspective is led by slowing down and filming in a way that is more receptive and exploratory. In this line of inquiry, I’m researching ways to interpret ocean states in celluloid, helping the sea reveal its condition by the image it develops.

This film, SMSR2, was made entirely at the shoreline on a remote peninsula in northeast New Brunswick. The seaweed and ocean water for developer and fixative were gathered at the same spot on the beach that the film was developed. I used a hand-crank vintage Bolex camera, a portable darkroom tent and a light-tight developing tank. I built a campfire to heat the water for the seaweed developing brew so the whole process was done on site, within and around the frame you see in the film. This is a practice I’m finessing that I will be able to travel with to shorelines around the world, learning about ocean health.