A Toxic Love Affair

Surf-breaks are formed by pollution. For example, one of the best in the UK is a product of slag, pollution stemming from a century-old steel industry. Uncertainty remains about water quality in this region given surrounding chemical plant, agricultural runoff, shipping, nuclear power, and much more. Surfers fall ill. Some use the illness and braving the pollution to gesture toward their resilience and commitment to surfing. It is not just the bitter cold of this region that signifies such. Polluted leisure is material and cultural.

  • James Davoll
    Director
    Adlais, Far From Heaven
  • Clifton Evers
    Director
    Far From Heaven
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 19 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 26, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    500 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, Sony FS5 & A7S
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • 6mm Film Festival
    Tynemouth
    United Kingdom
    October 30, 2018
  • Ethnografilm Festival
    Paris
    France
    April 19, 2019
    European
    Official Selection
Director Biography - James Davoll, Clifton Evers

Clifton looks at digital media, men, masculinity, place, sport (particularly lifestyle / action sport). I also research relationships between pollution and Blue Spaces leisure - oceans, seas, rivers, etc. My work includes employing wearable technologies as a research method to conduct 'wet ethnography' e.g. in the sea. I am currently using experimental creative productions to explore 'polluted leisure' in the Anthropocene.

James seeks to investigate our complex and contradictory relationship with the natural world. Beginning his art career in analogue photography he has become more and more interested in the intersection of the visual and sonic landscape as well as bringing liveness into his work.

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