MERMAIDS
Following are four questions from a colleague in New York, who is making a documentary about mermaids. As I began to respond to her I realised that the questions and my responses maybe of interest to other filmmakers and visitors to the site. The style is a bit personal but regardless, it reads with a sense of our daily reality on the ship.
Dear Chris,
How long will you be at sea?
What's it like out there all day and night?
Do you feel strange and disoriented sometimes?
Can you imagine the sailors wishing for mermaids?
Nicole
So I'll start with the mermaids. We left the calm haven of port this afternoon and are being tossed over the waves under the stars by gusts of wind of around 30 knots. I have just come off of bow watch, a duty which necessitates sitting on the focsle (the fore deck) and looking out for other craft, navigation beacons and lights, obstacles, land, reefs etc.
It's cold, windy and on this occasion uneventful. None the less all that time alone up on the bows with the waves and the sea spray and the black of night engulfing me leads to the consideration of mermaids, or anything essentially female, luscious, loving, and playful. I am sure this wouldn't be a particularly original course of thought. Despite trying to think about feature film ideas and more useful concepts amidst the gusty breakers, it leads me with some certainty to the fact that I am sure that sailors would think of mermaids a lot when they were at sea for any length of time.
I mean of course I am thinking about gorgeous women and various fantasies and the simple notion of them dispelling the cold one way or another. But for ancient seafarers a long way from home the possibility of realising any of these desires would have been remote and thus stories and fantasies of fictitious oceanic beauties swimming up to their vessel and melding with them would have gathered momentum.
Like a bunch of mates will sit around in a pub and talk lasciviously about Pamela Anderson or who ever, sordid banter about sea going lovers would seem a natural progression from the private thoughts I was having. So I can see an easy birthplace for your aquatic beauties and their legend.
Strange and disorientated? Yes often, but you already knew that! Actually the marine experience is quite grounding. The enormous expanse of water around us is insulating, almost electrically insulating I find. The sailing of the ship, which is quite an involved and physically demanding procedure, provides a focus that unites the crew and enables me to forget all the fragmented cerebral considerations that enmesh themselves in the usual day to day madness of being a filmmaker. For the moment I can just concentrate on being an assistant sailor. Assistant because if I said sailor and the rest of the crew read this they would contend the point vehemently and I wouldn't blame them. For me, the ship is still a tangled ball of ropes and knots and bits of wood, all called names that don't appear to relate to their purpose in English. Though I am gaining some understanding of what they all do it will be a while before I am able to take orders and execute them on the sheets.
How long will I be out at sea? We'll be in port in three or four days time and though the duration of my commitment to the voyage is still in discussion, so I will have to keep you posted on that one. But for now being out here all day and all night, is amazing for so many reasons, though you may have some impression of that from the above,
Warmest regards to you Mermaid Movie Maker,
Christophe.
Click Here for the Filmmakers Journal - 27 April, 2000
Click Here for the Filmmakers Journal - 14 April, 2000
Click Here for the Captains Journal
