The Highland Trail, Algonquin.

Sunrise over Provoking Lake

Below is a video compiled of footage I made this past September during a 5 day hike on the Highland Trail in Algonquin Provincial Park. The park in situated on the traditional lands of the diverse Algonquin Nation. You can learn more about the history of the land here. The link takes you to a tour company page; the land acknowledgment link at the top also has a fair bit of useful information.

My initial purpose in creating whilst on the trip was more to interact with the beauty in some way rather than gather material for a film. So I filmed with no script, and painted whatever scenes appealed rather than having any sequence or theme in mind.

So that happened, and the footage stayed on my phone, until the past week when I got Covid and confined to bed. I thought since I couldn't do anything else maybe I should make a film. Many people might not know such a place - or such quiet - exists, so perhaps I would be doing them a service in letting them know. 

About the length; I was often told in the past that my films were too long. Who would have time to watch them?! If you want to get your message out, more experienced artists warned, think of your audience. The public has an attention span of 30 seconds, remember that!

I often tried to take notice of them, because I respected them, but I rarely could. Maybe because I have never given up on you as they have. Now I'm back to fully having faith in my belief that true art is what it needs to be, regardless of what modern trends dictate. If nobody views what I do as a result, so be it. Part of the job of the artist is to respect the audience enough to give them the full artwork, rather than what the mainstream culture industry dictates they can handle. So that's what I do here, and will continue to do in the future. 

There's still time to reclaim control of our minds, I believe. One way of doing that is to use our leisure time wisely. Rather than spending downtime drinking, or engaging with shiny sports TV, or vacuous movies, music, art, or poetry that simply gives us what we expect, perhaps watch this film, go hiking, put a Mozart or Beethoven symphony on (and listen to it all the way through!), then engage with more real culture, that is, some form of creativity born for other purposes than to become merely both a method of control, and a product. Make this real culture one of the tools with which you tackle the complexities of modern life. 

So this is a relatively long film, just over 16 minutes in total, where nothing much but beauty happens. I try to offer not just what's in the film but also some opportunities for mental exercise during the process of watching. Something akin to meditation. The length also allows for truth, and an expansion of the mind. Which is partly what I believe art is for, in this age.

A final note, I haven't messed with the sound at all. It really is this quiet there. I suggest you use headphones in order to hear the film properly because any ambient noise will cancel much of the film out.