Global Prosperity

Axenéo7, Gatineau, QC,
October, 2009

The project is a series of stable tracking shots in major seaports. From September 2008 to April 2009, I filmed terminals in the ports of Montreal, Rotterdam, Los Angeles/Long Beach and Vancouver. The result is three 80 to 120 HD video projections of the containers, trucks, gantry cranes, breakbulk cargo and workers in the ports.

Jean-Luc Godard once claimed that the tracking shot calls attention to the ethics of the image. In filming these sequences I was attempting to see whether the addition of time to a stable image is an effective way to convey the real. Can a tracking shot convey the immensity and complexity of a global seaport?

Press Coverage
Video tracks of a vast, complex world
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tony Martins, Guerilla Magazine

Paysages Manufacturés
November 5, 2009
Katy Le Van, Voir

The extract below is of sulphur stacks, shot at Pacific Coast Terminals in Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada.

Pacific Coast Terminals from scott duncan on Vimeo.