Now Streaming, Ghosts of the Sea Is a Haunting Family Story

Now streaming from the National Film Board of Canada after making waves on the festival circuit, Ghosts of the Sea is a haunting family tale. The film, which debuted yesterday at NFB.ca, shares filmmaker Virginia Tangvald’s journey as she searches for answers to two tales of loss with parallels that haunt her. Winner of the audience award at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema, this moving tale looks to the past to correct the filmmaker’s course in the present as she reclaims her family history with a poetic lens.

Tangvald, who was born and raised on the sea, tells how her father Peter, a famous sailor, died in a shipwreck when she was only five years old. A few years, her brother Thomas disappeared at sea. These two losses inspire her to return to the water and visit ghosts of the past to understand what compels people to live on the unpredictable seas.

“Sailing on the dark waters of the past, Ghosts of the Sea builds a poetic blueprint for how the male ego can tangle itself to the anchor of tragedy,” wrote Courtney Small in our review from Hot Docs. “Through archival footage of Thomas and Peter, and incorporating interviews with friends, navigation experts, family, and her own inner thoughts, Tangvald presents a vivid portrait of a family that has endured an unimaginable amount of grief.  As her camera repeatedly lingers on the ocean, forcing the audience to contemplate both the vastness of nature and the shortsightedness of man, one cannot help but ponder what Thomas’ life might have been like had Peter not been an all-consuming destructive force.

An intriguing search for catharsis through the tall grass of tragedy, Ghosts of the Sea is a haunting work that lingers in the mind.”

Watch Ghosts of the Sea below from the NFB.

Ghosts of the Sea, Virginia Tangvald, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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