Rivers & Tides

Released 2001
Stars Andy Goldsworthy
Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer

This amazing documentary from Thomas Riedelsheimer won the Golden Gate Award Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival. The film follows renowned sculptor Andy Goldsworthy as he creates with ice, driftwood, bracken, leaves, stone, dirt and snow in open fields, beaches, rivers, creeks and forests. With each new creation, he carefully studies the energetic flow and transitory nature of his work.

Summary by www.netflix.com

This film is mesmerizing, but it took me a while to get in tune with it. It starts by showing several of Andy's pieces of natural art, but I didn't know what I was looking at. Eventually I figured out he wasn't some retired guy stacking stones on the beach just for fun, and I started to appreciate what he was doing. The initial problem was with the format of the documentary, which is so unconventional it was difficult to understand what I was watching and why I was watching. I'm sure it was intentional to make a film that was as unconventional as Andy's art, and that's a good thing. When I eventually understood what was going on, I appreciated the film so much more than I would have enjoyed a standard documentary that would have laid everything out with a voiceover and talking heads. Having said that, I have to admit I thought it was much better the second time I watched it, because I could appreciate both the art and its method. The film's style lends itself to be watched over and over... Many of the sculptures and pieces were stunningly beautiful. Some of my favorites were the dandelions and the multicolored leaves, because they were as beautiful as they were simple. There were also the stone pinecones and the circular, vertical stone arch that had me wondering how in the world he did it. Most of the pieces are so ephemeral they might seem frivolous, but that quality is an important part of the art, because his art is as much about transition as it is about beauty... This is not a movie for everyone, but I enjoyed it a great deal. If you have patience and like art, rent it. The highest compliment I can pay this movie is I felt inspired to create my own pieces by the time it was over. It's very relaxing and strangely engrossing. --Bill Alward, May 25, 2005