In 1952, Anita Conti, France’s first female oceanographer, embarked on a trawler to share the hard life of Atlantic cod fishermen, alone with her camera and sixty men for six months. Using her 16mm film rushes and photographs, the film reveals her scientific and yet tender gaze on the workers of the sea. This pioneering woman foresaw the need to protect the oceans. This film explores the modernity of her struggle, as well as the hazy, rhythmic beauty of her writing and photography.
«Anita Conti, the first French woman oceanographer to enter the closed world of sailors, embarked on a trawler in 1952 to share the hard life of Atlantic cod fishermen. Her 16mm film rushes and photographs are rough and poetic. Her gaze, initially scientific, reveals an infinite tenderness for the workers of the sea. Using her images as a starting point, I create a portrait of this iconoclastic adventurer who foresaw the need to protect the oceans.»
– Louise Hémon
