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UnderSee

Last winter, I was fortunate to be able to travel to Antarctica, and I was deeply moved by what I saw there. Human activity is governed by strong restrictions ratified by nations that have agreed not to claim any part of the continent for themselves; therefore the land and its inhabitants (seals, birds, whales and fish) are for the most part protected from direct human interference. Seals and penguins show no fear of humans; it is amazing to see just how interested baby seals are to get a closer look at people.

Antarctica is beautiful, with magnificent icebergs and glaciers glinting blue in the sunlight. But this beauty has become threatened indirectly by human activity. Greenhouse gasses and climate change are produced by modern civilization. The seas are growing warmer, and this will cause a great loss in biodiversity in once cold Antarctic waters as plants and animals are unable to adapt to warmer temperatures and die off. High levels of ocean acidification caused by the absorption of high levels of CO2 will cause more ecological havoc, as marine invertebrates and corals are adversely affected. This will alter key Antarctic marine food chains, and, unfortunately for humans, cause flooding in many parts of the world as the Antarctic ice shelf melts away and releases more and more water into the oceans. All of this creates a very depressing picture.

The very existence of Antarctica is now threatened by human activity. I am returning this winter for a second glimpse of the frozen continent, which I passionately hope can be preserved. I am producing drawings inspired by the beauty of Antarctic sea life. I have worked with animator Lynne Slater to finish a stop-motion film which revolves around the destruction produced by human pollution in the marine environment. Antarctica is now the focus of my creative output as I work to show my audience what a beautiful continent we risk losing.

  • Margie Kelk
    Director
  • Lynne Slater
    Director
  • Margie Kelk
    Writer
  • Lynne Slater
    Writer
  • Margie Kelk
    Producer
  • Alan Sondheim
    Sound Design
    Composer
  • Azure Carter
    Sound Design
    Vocals
  • Luke Damrosch
    Sound Design
    Supercollider Programming
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 47 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 1, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • UnderSee Exhibition & Screening @The Red Head Gallery
    Toronto
    Canada
    August 29, 2018
    World
Director Biography - Margie Kelk, Lynne Slater

Toronto-based visual artist Margie Kelk takes an exploratory and experimental approach as she appropriates and reconstructs visual fragments of ideas through diverse media that include ceramic sculpture, drawing, and animation. Recent one-person exhibitions include UnderSee at the Red Head Gallery (2018), reference:gesture (2017) at reference: contemporary, Toronto, Ontario; Substratae (2017) at Harcourt House Artist-Run Centre, Edmonton, Alberta and Counterpoise (2015) at the Red Head Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

Margie Kelk’s first award-winning stop-motion animated film, Substratae (2015) has been featured in over sixty film festivals nationally and internationally, including The New Renaissance Film Festival, London, UK, Photophobia Contemporary Moving Image Festival, organized by Hamilton Artists Inc., the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, and the New York State International Film Festival, in Albany, New York. She received numerous awards for Substratae, which include the Los Angeles Film Review Independent Film Awards Bronze Award, Los Angeles, CA, USA, and the Award of Excellence from the New Renaissance Film Festival, London, UK. UnderSee (2018), an animated film co-directed by Margie Kelk and Lynne Slater, has been screened in over 40 film festivals nationally and internationally including the Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California, USA; BlowUp Film Festival/ Chicago International Arthouse Film Festival, Chicago, IL, USA, and the Portugal International Film Festival at the Pestana Palacio do Freixo, Porto, Portugal.

In May, 2019, Survivor, a cast aluminum sculpture by Margie Kelk, was featured on the official Tumblr blog of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Forthcoming exhibitions in 2020 include In:Flux at the Red Head Gallery, Toronto.
Margie Kelk is a graduate of Wellesley College, the Johns Hopkins University (PhD.), and the Toronto School of Art diploma programme. She is represented by reference: contemporary, Toronto and is a member of the Red Head Gallery, also in Toronto.
Filmography
Producer (3 Credits)

Lynne Slater is an artist-animator living in Scarborough Ontario, with a BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a diploma in Classical Animation from the International Summer School of Animation at Sheridan College. Her multimedia animation work includes stop motion animation and 2D animated special effects.

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Director Statement

Synopsis of Under See

The animated film, UnderSee, conveys a world of exquisite harmony which slowly dissolves under the relentless onslaught of pollution. A clean-up crew of aquatic species arrives to eat away the invasive pollutants, and the undersea garden seems to regain some life. The question remains: can the reef and its creatures continue to withstand new threats, or will they give way to a murky universe of jellyfish that can survive in adversity?

Please refer to my website: www.margiekelk.com for additional information, including awards.