The hypnotic documentary Rivers And Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time is being released here by Ron Mann and Gary Topp's funky new distribution label.
They named their Toronto company "filmswelike" and that embodies their philosophy: Finding gems that personally appeal and then sharing them with the rest of us.
Rivers And Tides, an English-language German production, is certainly likable, and worth sharing. I cannot think of any other way of seeing it on a big screen, other than at a film festival. So filmswelike is doing art lovers a favour here.
The documentary is a lyrical visual wonder with a mesmerizing pace. Director, cinematographer and editor Thomas Riedelsheimer has a keen eye for form, flow and lighting.
That makes him an appropriate filmmaker to partner for a year with eccentric Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy, whose works are mostly environmental sculptures done in the field. They are fleeting, temporal pieces designed to be created from and destroyed by Mother Nature.
Goldsworthy usually documents his work through still photographs. Rivers And Tides adds a new dimension of movement and also includes the artist's rambling philosophies.
We see Goldsworthy at work on a Nova Scotia seaside beach arranging various materials. For separate pieces, he delicately arranges icicles in an "S" pattern, puts driftwood into a kiln-like structure that floats away with the tide and then places flat stones in a cone that is submerged by the sea.
Back in Scotland, Goldsworthy plucks yellow flowers and deposits them in a tiny pool by a rushing brook and then strings sheep's wool along a stone fence in a work that the artist believes embodies the tumultuous history of the animal in the Highlands.
At first, Goldsworthy's work seems trivial, even juvenile. But the images that Riedelsheimer's camera camptures are wonderful and the more of them you see juxtaposed, the more you appreciate the artist's vision.
I just wish he would not talk about them as much in the film. That is the major weakness here. Goldsworthy has a mildly grating manner, so some of his philosophizing sounds like pretentious prattle, especially when he is talking about being at one with a stone or a stick or a sheep. Show us, don't talk about it as much. And ditch the family scenes.
Nevertheless, many images are so powerful and Goldsworthy really is so sincere that it is impossible not to appreciate him. So Rivers And Tides is a film I like, too.
(This film is rated G)
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