Red Knot Journey » Uncategorized

Red Knot :: IFC Screening NYC

rkadmin — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 18:38:55 +0000

Red Knot :: IFC Screening NYC

The experience of sharing Red Knot Journey – the photographic works and film – with a small audience revealed how compelling it is to invite community together around art and how important it is to set the stage for a larger conversation. Red Knot Journey, the film, photographic works and soiree, are part of a contemporary travelogue that invites us to examine our closest relationships, to each other, to the ends of the earth and our impulse to
create and explore.

MICHAEL SIMMONDS :: CINEMATOGRAPHER

rkadmin — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 20:42:30 +0000

MICHAEL SIMMONDS :: CINEMATOGRAPHER

The cinematographer MICHAEL SIMMONDS was an enormous gift to this project. The Herculean task of shooting a feature film with a hand-held camera is a craft unto itself. Along with real strength and endurance, it requires a cinematographer with a visceral understanding and a philosophy of what it means to “be” the camera. It’s a physically challenging exercise that becomes unimaginably more difficult on a ship crossing one of the roughest seas in the world.

Before leaving New York, Simmonds and I met to look at my own photographic works. Simmonds responded to and appreciated the experimental nature of my photography, which is mostly derived from motion picture documentary footage I have shot on previous projects. We also perused the published collections of some of our favorite photographers: Sebastian Salgado, Robert Frank, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, to name a few. We discussed and watched films, including Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, Happy Together by Wan Kar-Wai, Malick’s Days of Heaven, Polanski’s Knife in the Water, and Cukor’s Adam’s Rib. I brought several of these on board and often found my team soaking them in late at night. They were films that we loved and respected.

Although we discussed all kinds of contraptions that could perhaps stabilize the camera on board the ship, Simmonds and I realized after a few meetings that a more fluid, hand-held feel would serve the film best. At that moment, we shared the reckoning that he would be holding the camera on his shoulder for most of the twenty-one-day shoot at sea.

In Michael Simmonds, I discovered a true master at his craft. Perhaps one of my favorite moments came with one of our first outings on the shores of the South Georgia Islands. It was a howling blizzard. We didn’t have much time to get the crew, equipment, and actors to the shoreline. Everyone suited up in gear and boots and made their way onto the various Zodiacs for a shore landing. Once everything settled and we set our minds to the work at hand, I looked over at Simmonds behind the camera. The snow had let up a bit, but his mustache was still covered in ice as he stood there in a tweed blazer and scarf he had apparently purchased before the trip. He looked like the true gentleman and artist he proved to be. The tweed blazer didn’t make many more outings as we progressed further south, but that image of the true romantic that is Michael Simmonds gave me great comfort that I had chosen the right partner to realize this film.

Peter’s Journal :: 68 Degrees South

rkadmin — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:00:18 +0000

Peter's Journal :: 68 Degrees South

CAPTAIN + CHLOE

rkadmin — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 15:40:41 +0000

CAPTAIN + CHLOE

The Captain (Billy Campbell) and Chloe (Olivia Thirlby) alone, together in the southern ocean.

February 23rd :: 68 Degrees South

rkadmin — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 15:12:21 +0000

February 23rd :: 68 Degrees South

Journal Entry #17: There’s nothing incidental about returning from a journey like the one we took to Antarctica. I held Antarctica as a destination inside for the better part of my life. Every since my father spun a globe in my room, the poles rooted in my imagination.

It was nothing like I imagined. There are no words to describe the majestic beauty and delicate impermanence of icebergs the size of buildings floating like nature’s Brancusi’s at sea. It’s fair to say that I was blinded by my ambition to walk in the footsteps of explorers. Perhaps it was blindness that drew them to the poles, repelled us away from the comforts of home and into the wild.

I still can’t explain where the inclination to touch something virgin and wild comes from – perhaps it is the wellspring of all life – that we yearn to preserve what is wild within ourselves, and thus wild in our environment.

Having returned, I question the distinction between self and what’s around us. Borders, territory, even our own skin are very thin barriers to what is flowing all around us, through us, all the time.

In retrospect, what happened down there, between Chloe and I, was the finest gift I could have dreamed of. There’s nothing easy about losing yourself for the first time; yet somehow, getting lost is the only choice, and having this other there, to help you pick up the piec- es, is perhaps a marker of what it actually means to be married.

FIONA STRUENGMANN :: ARTIST

rkadmin — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 15:08:58 +0000

FIONA STRUENGMANN :: ARTIST

FIONA STRUENGMANN is an artist bringing her design aesthetic and skills to the Red Knot feature film as well as to its print and online mediaprojects. Fiona has been working with the range of Thunder, Perfect Mind’s projects since their inception. Her collaborative skills and her ability to interpret and realize a range of unique aesthetics have been an integral part of this artistic process.

Reflections

rkadmin — Fri, 16 May 2014 15:40:20 +0000

ALEKSEI

rkadmin — Fri, 16 May 2014 12:00:22 +0000

ALEKSEI

The man that always got us close to the edge but kept us alive!

The minute I heard my first love story

rkadmin — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 14:04:52 +0000

The minute I heard my first love story

“The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you,

not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They’re in each other all along.

-Rumi

Journal Entry #2

rkadmin — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 16:14:58 +0000

Journal Entry #2

What happened down there, between us, was the finest gift I could have dreamed of – There’s nothing easy about losing yourself for the first time; yet somehow, getting lost is the only choice, and having this other there, to help you pick up the pieces, is perhaps a marker of what it actually means to be married.

Antarctic Convergence

rkadmin — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 03:49:13 +0000

Antarctic Convergence

Day 16 :: Our marriage and the journey seem to be on parallel courses. The Antarctic Convergence is stark, cold and beautiful. The cold water flowing northward from Antarctica meets the warmer waters of the Southern Ocean. The convergence represents what is perhaps the most significant biological barrier and abrupt transition of climate on earth. Quite suddenly the emergence of fog, shifting temperatures, icebergs and sea life usher us through to the Antarctic circle.