As the world becomes increasingly automated, the singular occupation of lighthouse keeper has quietly disappeared from the British coastline. Part elegy for a departed era, part meditation on the experience of solitude in nature, Ronan Glynn’s film records the stories of those who once manned the beacons that illuminate the wild places where the land meets the sea.
Former lighthouse keepers reminisce about solitude, and the power of the sea
Director: Ronan Glynn
Producer: Liberty Smith
9 December 2013
videoHistory of technology
Soon the particular solitude of the lighthouse keeper will be lost to automation
4 minutes
videoGender
Defying social pressure, a woman commits herself to lobster fishing and the sea
11 minutes
videoMood and emotion
The profound solitude of a winter spent alone on an island caring for an empty hotel
14 minutes
videoLove and friendship
After 30 years of solitude, Peter forms an unlikely friendship with a fellow loner
10 minutes
videoIllness and disease
As a young man’s sight fails him, friendship and night fishing help to keep his bearings
13 minutes
videoAgeing and death
Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England
11 minutes
videoHistory of technology
Behold as a mechanical foghorn in Shetland awakes from its year-long slumber
2 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
A glimpse into the dangerous and thrilling life of a big wave surf photographer
6 minutes
videoBiography and memoir
As her world unravels, Pilar wonders at the ‘sacred geometry’ that gives it structure
20 minutes