About
Sailing A Sinking Sea is a feature-length experimental documentary exploring the culture of the Moken people of Burma and Thailand. The Moken are a seafaring community and one of the smallest ethnic minority groups in Asia, traditionally spending eight months out of the year in thatch-roofed wooden boats. Wholly reliant upon the sea, their entire belief system revolves around water.
Sailing A Sinking Sea weaves a visual and aural tapestry of Moken mythologies and present-day practices. As a viewer you will swim under the sea past fishes and mermaids, sail boats across turquoise waters, land on 13 different islands, step inside sea shanties on stilts, delve into the minds of shamans, become possessed through the worship of sea gods, dance between lovers and emerge drenched in Moken mythology.
Reviews
“This loving impressionistic tribute is [...] an outlier in contemporary cinema, springing as it does from the 1930s ethnographic cinema of Robert Flaherty as well as the later visions of Jean Rouch in the '60s and Robert Gardner (who's cited in the credits) in the '70s and '80s.” — Carson Lund, Slant Magazine
Indigenous Studies:
Regions:
Credits
Sailing a Sinking Sea
Directed by
Olivia Wyatt
Writing Credits
Olivia Wyatt
Produced by
Lisa Duva
Elisabeth Holm
Jefferson Holt
Mark Lipson
Will Oldham
Katherine Pickard
Kim Sherman
Olivia Wyatt
Cinematography by
Kevin Hayden
Olivia Wyatt
Editing by
Tia Dunn
Arshia Haq
Eileen Kennedy
Olivia Wyatt
Camera and Electrical Department
Olivia Wyatt
Music Department
Bitchin Bajas