Sea of Life

Balaou (2007) - Tocha



I've been thinking about death a lot lately. And since I don't believe in afterlife, it hurts me to think that I'll lose everything I love eventually and die. But we all do and that's part of life. We deal with our grieving in a personal way. Gonçalo Tocha lost his mom and wanted to get away from earth, he jumps on the opportunity to sail the sea with his family friends, Florence and Baru, an older couple on their sailboat. While on land, Tocha records his large extended family, asking about his mother. Then he zones in on tight lipped, 91 year old great aunt who has basically given up and waiting to die. She doesn't have anything nice to say about life anymore, "91 years is way too much," she says.

Florence and Baru has been sailing since 1985. They quit their jobs and took to the sea ever since. The news on land doesn't interest them anymore, not because they are selfish but it's always too busy, too noisy, too many wars, dead bodies, more of the same all the time. Florence doesn't say much. Baru occasionally spits out some sailor wisdom - "only thing you know for certain is a departure date, everything else is unforeseeable", "have to have a goal that you will land somewhere", and so on. For 8 days, with the couple and their white cat for a company, Tocha sails, while being seasick most of the time. The sea is rough. Gonçalo doesn't really know why he is on Balaou. Is he continuing the agony that her mother felt during her last days? Seeing the land after 8 terrible days making him appreciate life more, at least a little while? Infinitely wise without trying too hard, Balaou turns personal grieving process into a gentle reminder that death is part of life.

Home at the End of the World

É na Terra não é na Lua/It's the Earth Not the Moon (2011) - Tocha







At the onset, Gonçalo Tocha states his intentions, that he will film everything and everybody, go everywhere and anywhere and will not miss a thing while on Corvo, the smallest island (pop. 440) in the Azores archipelago, the farthest tip of Europe in the middle of the Atlantic. For the next three hours, this doc plays out a gentle, warm, intimate visual diary in 14 chapters. Clouds pass by, rough sea, people's faces and their stories, losing the old way of life, etc.

Corvo, however isolated it looks from a distance, is not dissimilar to any small European town- a school, city municipality, airport, landfill, elections, cars, slaughter house etc. Holding a shot no more than 2-3 minutes, Tocha's fleeting sketches of the island and the lack of the usual eccentrics are quite anti-climactic compared to Herzog's bombastic documentaries, although they both deal with mysticism of a particular place, searching for truth and all that. It isn't quite like travel shows like Globe Trekker or anthropological study either. Tocha quietly takes all in and provides a slight, gentle voiceover in conversation with his only other crew, Didio Pestana, his sound man. It's Not the Earth is like a warm blanket, a fine mist that clings to your skin, or a bowl of hot chicken and noodle soup on a cold day. It's all very comfortable, even though it takes place at the end of the world, cut off by enormous and powerful sea. I can watch this all day long.