Vox Populi
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Video: Wooden Wheel | A Filmmaker’s Tender Tribute to Her Seafaring Father
Grounded by a sailing injury, Arthur still finds solace in the Irish Sea.
Filmed by his daughter, the London-based filmmaker Leonn Ward, Arthur stands on the shore at Dublin Bay at sunset, the sky streaked with clouds the colour of salmon and pewter and heather. While he gazes out meditatively over the water to the lighthouse and the twin chimney stacks at Poolbeg, the camera lingers, equally meditatively, on his soft, wrinkled face and his strong, scarred legs.
Periodically, the lapping sea and its pastel skies are intercut with monochrome scenes of a grey-bearded singer performing a sean-nós, or traditional Irish song, in a pub. ‘The hardest time in a sailor’s day / Is to watch the sun as it dies away,’ goes this melancholy sea shanty about a sailor away from home. ‘The finest ship that sails to sea / is still a prison for the likes of me.’ Click here to continue reading…
For an interview with the director Leonn Ward, please click here.
Director: Leonn Ward
Cinematographer: Harry Wheeler
Colourist: Tim Smith @ No. 8
Producer: Holly Wolfers (Black Dog UK)
Text: Elena Seymenliyska
Running time: 7 minutes
Email subscribers may click on the title of this post to watch the film.
Wooden Wheel (still shot from film)
Vox Populi 
My sole wish is that this were longer…
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Yes, it’s a beautiful film.
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Beautiful and even more because I was in Ireland last summer. And then “if I had wings like Noah’s Dove “. I used to sing that at the Palmir Coffee House in Seattle my freshman year at UW. Thank you.
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