Genesis
Winter 2006 Documentary series
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 7:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by
Starring
Rated G ·
1h 21m
France
French
Following up on their internationally acclaimed documentary Microcosmos, innovative filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou take viewers on a fabulous voyage through the origin and cycle of life in Genesis, nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques at the 2004 Montréal World Film Festival.
Designed as a mythical fable recounted by an African griot (an oral historian, played by Sotigui Kouyaté, Dirty Pretty Things), Genesis is the result of six years of work by the renowned filmmaking biologists to capture essential life on earth in all its unimaginable beauty and grotesqueness—from frilled lizards and panther chameleons to violin crabs and sea horses. Shot on location in Madagascar and the Galapagos Islands, Nuridsany and Pérrenou study the earth’s many creatures as they enter into the world and scramble for dominance and survival. Human birth is seamlessly woven into the film, underlying the undeniable interconnectedness of all life forms.
Watching Genesis is akin to looking closely at a beautifully intricate tapestry—poetic footage of land, space and sea are brilliantly choreographed to sound. Composer Bruno Coulais (Microcosmos) and sound designer Laurent Quaglio have crafted a powerful electric mix of ambient sound, effects and music, turning surprising blurps and bleats into symphonic compositions, only to revert back to dissonance. The poetic narration, lusciously delivered by Kouyaté in simple yet rich phrases, will embrace viewers. The griot blends myth and fable to stress the bond among all the elements of the universe. Audiences will revel in the explanations and revelations as Genesis unravels the mysteries of life’s origins.