Sailing a Sinking Sea (2015) User Reviews

Beautiful and Fascinating Look at the Moken Culture

[bleupython · 8/10 · 17 July 2022]

Sometimes film, especially documentary film, serves a higher purpose. It can preserve and archive a culture. It can capture a moment and place and hold it timelessly for future generations to learn and enjoy.

Sailing a Sinking Sea is a fascinating look at the Moken people of the Oceans between Malaysia and Thailand. They are a people who live on the sea, in boats, and come to land only occasionally. I found their folklore, their creation myth and stories of mermaids and magic, to be the most interesting part of this documentary.

It is beautifully filmed and the stories of the people and their lives are engaging. Olivia Wyatt has created something meaningful that is a contribution to the archives of world cultures.

Wonderful

[enriquegualbertoramirez · 10/10 · 12 May 2015]

Olivia Wyatt's "Sailing A Sinking Sea" is one of the best documentaries I've seen in recent years. Wyatt trains her ethnographic eye on the seafaring Moken, a small, yet ethnically diverse seafaring people living on boats and islands along the Andaman Sea. Filled with ravishing, stunning cinematography (and a haunting soundtrack as well), Wyatt's film is more than an "experimental" film: it is a generous, lovely piece that points to new directions in documentary film making. Viewers may be quick to make comparisons to Chris Marker's "Sans Soleil," yet Wyatt's film is more reminiscent of something like W.G. Sebald's "Rings of Saturn" or John McPhee's "The Control of Nature." Highly recommended.