Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017: VANISHING SAIL
7:30 pm/ St. John School of the Arts/ $5 donation / $5 raffle ticket
The raffle for this screening is being donated by Ronnie’s Pizza, Sam & Jacks, Best of Both Worlds.
A 90-minute documentary
Filmmaker ALEXIS ANDREWS will be present for discussion
This special screening of Vanishing Sail is a pre-general-release and is co-sponsored by St. John Arts Week, the St. John Historical Society, and the St. John Film Society.
Vanishing Sail follows traditional boatbuilder Alwyn Enoe as he and his sons work to create a final sailing vessel before the skills introduced by Scottish ancestors, generations ago, are lost forever.
Under the beautiful backdrop of The Grenadines in the Lesser Antilles, this award-winning feature documentary represents over fifteen years of research and documenting the art form of wooden boatbuilding in the Eastern Caribbean. Following Alwyn’s progress and despair over three years: from hauling trees out of the forest to a traditional launching ceremony on the bayside, Vanishing Sail weaves in stories of trade and smuggling as told by the last Caribbean sea characters.
Described by Indiewire as “An insightful & poignant documentary that is part social history and part Herzogian portrait of resilience and determination in a far flung locale”, Vanishing Sail has competed in 18 film festivals receiving 5 major accolades including winning the “People’s Choice Award Best Feature Documentary” at the Trinidad + Tobago film festival. The film boasts 164 worldwide screening requests and is one of the most successful film campaigns on Kickstarter.
Cutting 180 hours of footage into an 88 minute runtime keeps the film exciting, from the moment we meet the master boatbuilder to the finale: a race against time to finish the sloop before the Antigua Classics Regatta.
Vanishing Sail from Indian Creek Films on Vimeo.
DIRECTOR:
Alexis Andrews, Vanishing Sail’s Writer, Director, and lead Cinematographer, was born in Greece and studied photography in London before sailing to Antigua in 1985 to pursue work as a commercial photographer in the yachting industry. In 1997 he purchased an old Carriacou sloop and sailed her back to the Grenadines to meet the creator – this journey sparked a ten year photoessay tribute to the last boatbuilders on the island and ultimately lead to Vanishing Sail.