Geographies of Solitude

Canada’s Sable Island, “sable” being French for sand, is a small island in the Atlantic ocean to the east of the border between Canada and the USA. It is populated by wild horses, grey seals, more than 300 species of birds, and insects found nowhere else in the world. Sable Island is a protected national park, with only limited access for tourists. 

Zoe Lucas travelled to the island in 1971 to see the famous wild horses. Soon after her quick visit, she returned as the cook of a seal research expedition. Cooking left Lucas with enough time to also participate in research, and she counts that over the course of a ten-year research project she carried more than 2700 kilograms of horse manure in her backpack. Lucas has lived on the island for over 40 years now, and its nature still manages to impress her. 

Jacquelyn Mills’ film follows Lucas’ life and work on the island. In doing that, it also paints a picture of a place where the wind blows through horses’ manes, its sound interrupted only by the crashing of waves and the barking of seals. The open scenery allows room to breathe with no humans in sight – only what they leave behind. Lucas keeps a meticulous record on the plastic waste carried to the island on the waves and in the stomachs of birds. 

Mills has mainly shot the documentary on 16 mm film. It includes experimental visual and audio content inspired by the environment, such as “music” made by a beetle and a snail.

Katariina Rönnqvist (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)