Remember how we mentioned that the doc was epic? \u201cIn the Arctic Ocean, a colossal ship drifts along, while thousands of kilometers of fiber optic cable slide from the deck into the dark depths of the sea,\u201d reads a synopsis.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf you need more evidence of the project\u2019s scale, let\u2019s just mention that the filmmaker worked on it for about 10 years. The CPH:DOX website even highlights this about Arctic Link: \u201cEverything is enormous \u2013 from the massive cables to the images and phenomenal sound design \u2013 but the human scale never disappears from view.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe looming digital change is juxtaposed by the ship\u2019s Filipino crew members drifting in isolation, with their cell phones the only connection to home, if they work. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen I first discovered a map of the world\u2019s submarine cables, the internet suddenly took on a physical shape,\u201d Purnell shares in a director\u2019s statement. \u201cI felt a strong urge to trace these hidden routes \u2013 to see how the network disappears beneath the sea and to meet the people who build these connections. I wanted to understand this infrastructure that usually remains unseen, and I knew I could only approach it emotionally rather than purely technologically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Produced by Franziska Sonder, Arctic Link features cinematography by Marie Zahir. The editor is Chris Wright, while sound and music come courtesy of Tobias Koch. Filmotor is handling sales.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Arctic Link\u2019 film still<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Ian Purnell<\/p>\n
\n\tCheck out a trailer for Arctic Link here, which touches on the question of whether the internet will turn out to be a savior or a beast. It actually kicks off with a stat that may surprise you: 99 percent of internet traffic is going through submarine cables.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a conversation about Arctic Link, Purnell shared with THR how he approached bringing the internet to life in visual and audio ways, the challenge and joy of the doc\u2019s scale, and what he wants to do next.<\/p>\n
\n\tWas Arctic Link really a decade in the making? \u201cI had the original idea more than 10 years ago, and quite early on, I researched where I could get on one of these ships,\u201d Purnell recalls. \u201cIt turned out to be a very difficult exercise to build relationships with these companies and for them to have a reason to take me on.\u201d Several slots for him to board ships were under discussion, but things kept coming up, such as a storm, a canceled cable project, and COVID. \u201cSo, gaining access required a huge amount of patience,\u201d the director concludes, requiring him and cinematographer Zahir to stay \u201cextremely flexible.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tShooting in a remote area without internet also presented the challenge of building a rapport with locals. \u201cIt was very important just to be present there and make connections in the village,\u201d Purnell tells THR. \u201cIt went quite quickly once we were there, but the preparation beforehand was very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPurnell was impressed by the awareness of the Alaskan people he met about what changes the internet may bring. \u201cIt was a very wise perspective,\u201d he says. \u201cThey weren\u2019t innocent. They knew what it was and would bring [with it], but they also could see it from an outside perspective a bit, which is hard when you are ridiculously immersed in it, like us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tPurnell didn\u2019t even need to force the subject. \u201cOnce we got off the ship and came to the island, all these conversations just started to flow,\u201d the director recalls. \u201cEveryone had this awareness that this ship was bringing the internet. It is a different kind of awareness that a lot of us don\u2019t have, because you don\u2019t see this ship that brings you the internet in front of you. So, these conversations just happened organically. I didn\u2019t want to force my concept on them: \u2018Now, talk about the internet!\u2019 So, I was glad that this was just a natural topic of discussion, because they saw it right in front of them, coming towards them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Arctic Link\u2019 film still<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Ian Purnell<\/p>\n
\n\tHow did the creative team approach portraying the internet from an aesthetic point of view? \u201cFor me, it was really important to find a new visual connection to the internet,\u201d Purnell shares. That means he wasn\u2019t happy to simply use images of servers and keyboards over and over. \u201cI was really interested in creating this new imagery that even for me was surprising. In contrast, the ship was built in the \u201980s, before the World Wide Web existed, so we got this smell of oil and this steampunk aesthetic instead of high-tech imagery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHis conversations with cinematographer Zahir took on elements of zoological discussions. \u201cWe really tried to make inanimate infrastructure feel alive by portraying the cable like a snake, for example,\u201d Purnell explains. \u201cWe were often talking about what kind of animal something could be, such as a whale. How can we make this physical stuff feel more alive? These discussions helped us make technical things become or function as protagonists, creating a more emotional connection, or sensual connection, rather than just a rational, technical connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAll this was a key focus of the filmmaking process that appealed to him and fascinated him. \u201cThe challenge was to make a film about something that is invisible and create an imagery for it,\u201d Purnell tells THR. \u201cAnd the fact that it is invisible also creates different stories around it. Different people who have a connection to it have to use their own imagination, so that creates a multitude of stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGiven the epic scale of Arctic Link, you would think Purnell may want to go small next. Wrong! \u201cI have already done some research around topics of astronomy, especially around black holes,\u201d he shares. \u201cWhat fascinates me is the image of a black hole, because it\u2019s something that is not possible to capture in an image. It\u2019s all at a very early stage. But whether it is the internet or astronomy, I\u2019m really interested in all these signals and waves. So, with a film about outer space, I would be following a similar approach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine a remote corner of Alaska finally getting connected to the internet, and you can witness it! Interested?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[120165,156,1019,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-330426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cphdox","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-international","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}