6/12- 180 Degrees South
In preparation for our 6/14-6/29 study abroad trip to Chile, I
watched a documentary called 180 degrees South by Jeff Johnson, a film about the life changing
experience of going to and climbing Patagonia in Chile. The older men in the movie were owners of the
companies North Face and Patagonia that offer sports and outdoor gear. Then the movie segued into the story of a
younger man that was inspired by footage of the CEO’s and went himself. It changed his life and he ended up staying
in the area and learning how to farm. He finds himself concerned and wanting to help so he fights for nature conservation in
the area now that he has developed a personal relationship with it. It's a very moving story about a young man finding
his passion in life from an adventure. This documentary is a reminder of the importance of the film medium to pass along perspectives and experiences to larger audiences that may be inspired as a result. As a result of having watched this film, I am now more familiar with the "Patagonia Sin Represas" movement in Chile and other North Americans have tried to help.
Patagonia Sin Represas News
"The organization has launched a very strong Public relations campaign across Chile to fight the Endesa power company and others in the Chilean government that would destroy thousands of acres of the Baker and Rio Pascua river valleys in the Patagonia. This very misdirected attempt to solve Chile's power problems by building hydro electric dams and sending power all the way to Santiago has gained speed under President Bachelet's administration in Chile" (All Southern Chile, 2012).
180 Degrees South reminds me of the book, 3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin about Greg Mortenson who finds his path in life by hiking to the top of the K2 peak
in Pakistan. He decides that the area
would benefit from schools so puts all of his efforts into this endeavor and
succeeds in a way nobody could have imagined. Unfortunately, not everyone approved of the way he managed the Central Asia Institute- the foundation created to manage the building of the schools, and a book came out later called 3 Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer. I have not yet had a chance to read this but look forward to it. I also found my passions in life from travel
in that I wanted to work with international students and solidified that desire
by teaching English in South Korea for 3 years.
Now I have an unquenchable thirst to be involved in international
education and help students of all ages and backgrounds reach their goals. As a result of my travels, I have also become interested and involved with creating visual art that raises awareness about nature conservation and other social issues.
Below is a copy of a film review that I recently wrote:
180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the
Useless
By Sasha Harrison
180 Degrees South: Conquerors of
the Useless (2010), is an adventure documentary about a surfer and climber,
Jeff Johnson, who finds his life veering into the doldrums. Directed by Chris Malloy, the film traces
Jeff’s decision to spice things up as he turns “180 South” and heads from
Ventura, California to Patagonia, Chile for some thrills. Inspired by footage that was found of the
1968 expedition led by the Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard with legendary
rock climber and co-founder of North Face and ESPRIT outdoor clothing
companies, Doug Tompkins, Jeff decided to retrace their footsteps. Instead of
traveling by land, hitching a ride with a sailor, he goes by sea from Mexico
and sails south along the west coast of Chile.
Held up by a dangerous breaking of the sail mast, they have to stop at
Easter Island where he shows home video footage of resting, fixing the boat,
fishing, surfing, climbing, and a lady adventurer, Makohe, that decides to join
them on their journey. They finally make
it to their destination and encounter further trials that schedule them to
climb at a perilous time when the rock of Patagonia is loose because of melted
snow. While he and his team ultimately
fail to summit the final 200 ft. of Cerro Corcovado (the Corcovado volcano),
the journey revealed itself to be the ultimate lesson that raised awareness
about conservation and the environment.
Their lives were permanently altered as these themes took over as a
motivating locus of their future endeavors.
While the overall purpose of the
movie hinted at exposing the virtues of adventure to a beautiful and rugged
landscape and enhancing one’s relationship to nature, at times it came off as
superficial. Let me explain. The beginning of the documentary showed
original footage of the original 1968 journey with the youthful Yvon Chouinard
and Doug Tompkins on their way to Patagonia.
It was rugged, exciting, and had an old glam feel to it that got the
viewer in a nostalgic kind of mood, looking forward to an epic and historical story. Then, the director abruptly switches to
modern footage, sometimes taken with a home video camera that jostled the
screen to the point of feeling queasy, and other times with professional and smooth
footage that allowed the stomach to settle.
The beginning of the movie
foreshadowed a historic journey to a land that had rarely been touched by the
North American man. However, it was
disappointing when it gave a modern portrayal of a simulated experience. It felt less unique, less genuine, and less
adventurous because it had already been done before. The triteness of the mirrored “adventure”
left me wanting a more genuine experience.
Another aspect that contributed to
the perceived superficiality was the editing of the film. I believe the jolty clips of conversation
mixed with long panoramic scenes of natural splendors, was intended to create a
“documentary” type realism for the audience.
However, instead of that gritty texture so often associated with this
genre, the modern, and wannabe original adventure film came off as
confused. One moment the protagonist,
Jeff, is pounding nails into the boat to fix the mast as they are stranded on
Easter Island (not painfully so since he met a beautiful woman and surfed in
the off hours while taking in spectacular sunsets). Then the next moment, there is a serene scene
of the Easter Island statues as the waves lap methodically in the
background. Was this a positive or
negative experience? In the end it culminates
into a conclusion about the actual path that led to the insights of the
adventure-but during the movie, it seemed as though the only goal was to reach
the top of the volcano. The film editing
could have been friendlier to the weak stomach by standardizing the shots so
that they weren’t so choppy and difficult to digest.
Although there were problems that myself
and other reviewers of 180 Degrees South
pointed out as well, the documentary did have some highly redeeming qualities. The director may have made some errors in the
haphazard way that the movie was edited and the manner in which important themes
were tacked on as a last minute thought.
However, Chris Malloy did engage with each player in the movie in a
meaningful manner. For instance, when he
interviewed Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins, he had them together for many
parts of the film in what appeared to be an old workshop. As a result, the audience was able to see how
the two characters interacted with each other, as well as with the interviewer. They are older now, 60’s and 70’s, and you
can tell that they shared a lot of history together from the shared stories,
memories and jokes. This allowed the
audience to imagine how those men must have sarcastically and argumentatively bantered
their way down the South American continent in their Ford E-Series Econoline
Van with surfboards and climbing equipment littering their vehicle. We can see firsthand how their 1968 adventure
must have proved so significant in their lives that it moved them to start their
own companies that became ubiquitous and successful. Initially broke and adventurous, these men
inspired the wanderlust that moved Jeff to take a break from his dreary
California job and pursue a lifelong dream.
In this way, the director achieved his goal of capturing the point of
views and intricacies of the risk-taking individuals that were pivotal to the point
of this story.
Along with the directing, the
impromptu script that appeared and dialogue that was captured was also interesting
and revealed valuable insight into the character’s lives. For instance, "These people have shown
me that if you love a place, you have a duty to protect it. And to love a
place, you have to know it first," (180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the
Useless) says a character in the film towards the end. These deep words almost came as an
afterthought to the original theme of the film, yet they still lingered as an
important takeaway when it was finished.
Regardless of the fact that the “life-lessons” exposed themselves in a
serious manner as a tacked on extra to the film, they were still meaningful and
thoughtful. Perhaps they would have
seemed more salient if they had been interwoven into the body of the
documentary as a purposeful thread. That
being said, the dialogue of the film was mostly realistic, since there were
many interviews and candid segments, and they fit well with the overall
documentary theme.
The plot was neither great nor
horrific. It wasn’t necessarily
inventive or creative in a standout or particularly memorable way, but it
wasn’t weak or boring either. Yes, the
words and dialogue seemed credible since Jeff was just a normal guy and an
adventurer out in the wilderness trying to make his way down the coast. What kind of credentials do you really need
to be credible in this scenario? Perhaps
the fact that the CEO’s of a few very successful companies were interviewed
added credibility to the overall movie and inspired folks to watch it, since people
often like to view the inside life of wealthy individuals. The main surprise of the movie was that Jeff
and his crew failed to reach the top of the Corcovado volcano. It was sad that he never reached his goal,
yet the writers assuaged this wound by focusing instead on the positive outcomes
of the trip such as an enlightened mind for environmental conservation and a
new love of the Chilean land.
Considering that this was a
documentary and not a Hollywood film full of special effects, the costumes and
clothing, as well as set choices fit the movie.
The characters that were interviewed, Yvon and Doug, had the most
flexibility in choosing their style for the movie in a way that truly
represented who they were. They chose
casual attire that one would expect from an outdoorsy type individual. This styling, along with their choice of
interview location- the rustic woodshop- contributed to a realistic and climber/surfer
ambiance of the film. These were far
from your suit and tie wearing businessmen and CEO oriented type people. They were portrayed as relaxed and casual, a
demeanor that fit well with the chosen set.
The backgrounds were believable and of course Mother Nature and all her
majesty won the best scenery award.
Nobody can argue that the sunsets over the ocean, snowy peaks of the Patagonia
region; cliffs of Easter Island and rivers of southern Chile as portrayed in
this film were anything less than breathtaking.
These scenes were practically characters in and of themselves. One couldn’t ask for better scenery for the cinematography.
Last but not least, the music was
appropriate to the surfer and climber scene.
Clips of music by M. Ward, Andrew Bird and Modest Mouse were
incorporated into the documentary in a way that gave it some appreciated
character. Popular music among this crowd,
it illuminated the attitude and vibe often associated with coastal and
mountainous sports milieus. The edgy
guitars along with the indie-emo riffs gave the film some credibility as a
legitimate source for telling this story from a climber’s perspective. Upbeat and serene at the same time, the music
flowed well with the ever changing pace of the film and flow of the scenes. Overall, it was a pleasant soundtrack.
Though I would recommend this film
to friends as an interesting and somewhat educational film, one thing that I
wish the film had delved into a bit further was the political landscape of Chile. I was forced to seek outside reading in the
Insight Guides: Chile and Easter Island in order to fulfill my curiosity on
these matters that innately affected the environmental and conservation issues
that were faced in the documentary. A
background overview of these political issues could have offered a great deal of
credibility to the film. It could have displayed
thorough research and added to the comprehension of the issues that a laymen watching
the film may not consider, and could therefore draw faulty conclusions. It is an injustice to skim over deeper rooted
issues, though I suppose this could be seen as an introductory tool to
instigate further analysis by those that care to get involved in the causes
portrayed.
On a closing note offered with a
caveat, the 180 Degree South
documentary was viewed from the eye of a student who would soon be traveling
there for a study tour. From this point
of view, along with the background knowledge gained from reading the Insight Guides: Chile and Easter Island (2010)
book, I was fascinated with the rugged beauty seen through the lens of a video
camera and from the pictures from the guidebook. However, I also understand that there are so
many complications and issues that were never touched upon in either
source. Issues of educational history,
policy and growth were lightly touched upon in the guidebook, yet further analysis
of these issues are needed to understand the complexities of a unique culture
through the eyes of an outsider. If
anyone is able to help offer assistance to another country, it is my belief
that one must also help locally first.
In order to offer effective help, one must be aware of how issues are
framed within other cultures, not just how they are contextualized within their
own environments. Chile has some
geographic treasures that I agree should be preserved, but we must also
consider how this conservation can be done in the best way for indigenous
people. If outsiders buy the land for
preservation but then scare away investors and businesses from Chile, how is
this helping their economy? Do locals
get to use the conserved land as their own?
Can we justify this type of aid if indigenous people are compromised? At the end of the day, Chileans need to have the
final say in how their country is handled by their own citizens, as well as how
their land is used by those from the outside.
REFERENCES
Frizzelle, C. (2010, May 7,
2010). 180 degrees south: Lindy, do I really have to review this movie? SLOG
News and Arts, 1.
Lawrence, R. (2010). In
Lawrence R. (Ed.), Insight guide: Chile and easter island (5th ed.).
London, England: APA Publications.
