Brock University Film Society

Dear Friends of BUFS,

This week, we’ll be screening Jacquelyn Mills’s wonderful Geographies of Solitude.

In a recent interview on The Ezra Klein Show, in an episode titled “The Art of Noticing — And Appreciating— Our Dizzying World,” the American poet Jane Hirshfield discussed her pronounced shift toward environmental issues and what we might call an overt eco-poetic sensibility. This development was prompted by the ever-increasing urgency of the climate crisis, of course, but it was also tied to a growing awareness on her part of the staggering inter-connectedness of life on earth. Hirshfield noted that none of this was entirely new — she’d been an active part of the very first Earth Day proceedings back in 1970 and had long had an attraction to nature, in spite of her New York upbringing — but it had become more prominent in her work in recent years as climate change had become a clear and present danger.

Zoe Lucas is a Canadian naturalist who experienced an epiphany in 1971 when she first visited Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a rather large, but extremely narrow spit of land — 40 kilometres long and 2 kilometres across at its widest point — that sits 100 kilometres off the mainland. Lucas had gone to the island to see its famous wild horses, but the experience turned out to be life-changing. She visited the island repeatedly over the next several years, and in the early 1980s she relocated to Sable permanently. Lucas arrived as an art student from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, but within a few years she’d become an amateur naturalist —a particularly passionate and committed one. As she’s noted, the thrill of learning things directly, instead of reading about them in books was something she found unbelievably compelling. Lucas has been the island’s sole year-round human inhabitant for over 40 years. Over time, as oil, debris, and especially plastics have washed ashore in greater and greater quantities, wreaking havoc on Sable, its ecosystem, and the waters that surround it, she’s become the island’s steward, as well as a highly respected environmental researcher and sentinel.

Jacquelyn Mills is a talented Canadian filmmaker with a poetic sensibility. Her film Geographies of Solitude is a remarkable account of Zoe Lucas and her profound relationship with Sable Island — an experimental documentary that is “part nature film, part biographical portrait,” as the critic Ben Kenigsberg has noted. At one point in the film we hear audio of Lucas addressing an audience in 2015. “So, I’m not going to give you a straightforward talk about the natural history of Sable Island. This is more about experiencing Sable.” The same could be said of Geographies of Solitude. This is not a conventional film about the natural history of Sable Island. This is a film about experiencing Sable, about experiencing the richness, diversity, and complexity of its ecosystem, about submitting to its majesty, its subtleties, its cruelty, and its peculiar genius, and about the art and science of noticing — and appreciating — its dizzying and awe-inspiring world.

Bon cinéma!

Anthony Kinik
Associate Professor

MARCH 9 - GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE

ABOUT BUFS

The Brock University Film Society (BUFS) has been bringing the best in independent and art house cinema to St. Catharines and the Niagara region for well over 40 years. The society is supported by the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Brock.

BUFS screenings take place in the state-of-the-art facilities of the Film House inside the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (250 Saint Paul Street). These screenings occur on Thursday nights at 7:00 p.m. throughout the school year, and they often feature introductions, short presentations, prize giveaways and other surprises.

“BUFS is a pillar of the Niagara cinephile scene, and it has been since 1975. BUFS screenings have a wonderful energy to them, one that comes from the combination of artful, thought-provoking films, eager, savvy audiences, and a premium theatre experience. This is film culture the way it was meant to be, with animated discussions continuing long after the credits roll, and spilling out onto the streets of St. Catharines.”

Anthony Kinik, Film Professor

Tickets and information

Tickets
Tickets are available at the Film House on the evening of screenings. General admission is $9.50 or $7 for Film House members / 13 and under.

Memberships are available through the Film House website.

Season
BUFS kicks off Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. 

Prizes
Chance to win film-related prizes every BUFS screening.

Ratings
Ticket sales will be subject to enforcement of Ontario Film Review Board ratings. Please have photo identification ready.

Accessibility
BUFS is proud to be part of Brock’s university-wide commitment to provide facilities, programs, and services in a way that respects the dignity and independence of persons with disabilities. Learn more about accessibility at BUFS.

Contact
Anthony Kinik
Associate Professor
akinik@brocku.ca

previous seasons

  • Downton Abbey
  • Parasite
  • Frankie
  • Joker
  • Honey Boy
  • Jojo Rabbit
  • Little Women
  • The Good Liar
  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  • A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
  • A Hidden Life – cancelled
  • Dark Waters – cancelled
  • BlacKKKlansman
  • Suspiria
  • Destroyer
  • The Old Man and the Gun
  • Widows
  • Shoplifters
  • A Star is Born
  • Cold War
  • Stan & Ollie
  • If Beale Street Could Talk
  • Vice
  • The Farewell
  • The Last Black Man in San Francisco
  • Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love
  • Where’d You Go, Bernadette
  • David Crosby: Remember My Name
  • The Souvenir
  • The Dead Don’t Die
  • Judy
  • Pain and Glory
  • The Lighthouse
  • Mister America
  • C’est La Vie
  • The Divine Order
  • Human Flow
  • The Square
  • Beach Rats
  • The Florida Project
  • Oscar Shorts – Live Action
  • Call Me By Your Name
  • Don’t Talk to Irene
  • Human Flow
  • Meditation Park
  • First Reformed
  • Let the Sunshine In
  • Sorry to Bother You
  • Madeline’s Madeline
  • Papillon
  • Three Identical Strangers
  • The Wife
  • Fahrenheit 11/9
  • Juliet, Naked
  • The Happy Prince
  • Anthropocene: The Human Factor
  • Dark Horse
  • Tale of Tales
  • Captain Fantastic
  • The Dressmaker
  • It’s Only the End of the World
  • Neon Demon
  • Maggie’s Plan
  • Our Little Sister
  • Weiner
  • Things to Come
  • Mia Madre
  • The Light Between Oceans
  • 20th Century Women
  • The Salesman
  • Weirdos
  • The Handmaiden
  • American Honey
  • Paterson
  • Moonlight
  • Toni Erdmann
  • A Man Called Ove
  • I, Daniel Blake
  • I’ll See You in My Dreams
  • Slow West
  • Eden
  • The Second Mother
  • Coming Home
  • Best of Enemies
  • Samba
  • Court
  • Labyrinth of Lies
  • Sleeping Giant
  • Grandma
  • Trumbo
  • Macbeth
  • 45 years 
  • This Changes Everything
  • Son of Saul
  • Mountains May Depart
  • Into The Forest
  • Mustang
  • Lady in the Van
  • Theeb
  • Rams
  • The Immigrant
  • Ida
  • Tracks
  • Bright Days Ahead (Les beaux jours)
  • The Rover
  • We Are The Best! (Vi är bäst!)
  • Calvary
  • Land Ho!
  • The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Hundraåringen som klev ut
  • genom fönstret och försvann)
  • Venus In Fur (La Vénus à la fourrure)
  • Boyhood
  • Pride
  • Whiplash
  • The Overnighters
  • Force Majeure (Turist)
  • My Old Lady
  • Rosewater
  • Mommy
  • Still Alice
  • Red Army
  • Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit)
  • Mr. Turner
  • Before Midnight
  • Blue Jasmine
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • Blancanieves (Snow White)
  • 20 Feet From Stardom
  • The Way Way Back
  • Fruitvale Station
  • The Hunt
  • Wadjda
  • All Is Lost
  • Museum Hours
  • Dallas Buyers Club
  • Siddharth
  • The Broken Circle Breakdown
  • Good Vibrations
  • Inside Llewyn Davis
  • Nebraska
  • Watermark
  • The Selfish Giant
  • Le Week-end
  • Gabrielle
  • Cas & Dylan

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