Film Screening: Wind, Tide & Oar

Wind, Tide & Oar is a compelling exploration of engineless sailing, shot on analogue film over three years. The film delves into the experiences of those who travel solely by harnessing the natural elements alone, following a diverse array of traditional boats and uncovering the unique rhythms and motivations of engineless navigation. Journeying through rivers, coastlines, and open seas, spanning the UK, the Netherlands, and France, Wind, Tide & Oar creates a contemplative space, addressing themes of ecology, heritage, traditional skills, and maritime history. Using a 1960s hand-wound camera, Wahl offers a poetic and intimate perspective on a millennia-old craft, upended by the invention of mechanised power. Through the film’s reveries, sailing becomes a means to explore our interaction with and responsibility to the environment. It invites deep reflection on our relationship with nature, our understanding of and commitment to sustainability, and our care for the world around us.

Huw Wahl is a filmmaker and artist who has earned international recognition and showcased his award-winning work globally. With funding grants from organisations like The Henry Moore
Foundation, Arts Council England and the RPS, he uses analogue film to explore the transformative potential of creative action. Huw is driven by his belief in film’s power to open experiences and ideas for communal change. His last film The Republics (2020), made in collaboration with the poet Stephen Watts, premiered at CPH:DOX and went on to screen internationally. He was introduced to sailing by his sister Rose Ravetz on her boat, Defiance, where he was struck by the poetic and filmic potential of going engineless. This experience produced the first shoots of the project, which grew into a sibling collaboration of multiple proportions.

Published by The New Menard Press, Wind, Tide & Oar the book takes us deep into the ever flowing dialogue between sailor, boat and the elements. Exploring what it means to sail ‘engineless’, this unique anthology offers a diverse range of first-hand seafaring narratives. These collected works address such themes as tradition, sustainability and self-knowledge, as well as adventures, dreams and ideals. We are invited to experience what it is to be in harmonious movement with the natural world and gracefully subject to its whims.

Jude Brickhill, Stevie Hunt, Mike Jackson, Artur C. Jaschke, Greg Powlesland, Wiebe Radstake, Emma Rault, Rose May Ravetz, Jessica Taggart Rose, Richard Titchener, Catharina Vergeer and Huw Wahl.