All the Ships at Sea
An unsettling look at the ties that bind

By Zach Campbell

Dan Sallitt’s newest creation is a 64-minute wonder that deserves to be seen and discussed by any who appreciate thoughtful, artistic cinema (even when it’s shot on video).  All the Ships at Sea records a reunion between two adult sisters, elder Evelyn (Strawn Bovee) and younger Virginia (Edith Meeks), both of whom have gravitated toward spiritual lives at least in part as a reaction to their secular, mirthless parents.  The film plays out as a series of talks, one being a running conversation between Evelyn and her priest, the amiable Father Joseph (Dylan McCormick), which takes place after the Evelyn-Virginia scenes in the narrative and to which Sallitt periodically cuts, deepening the issues brought up, widening their implication, and coloring them more subtly.  The static camera in the film doesn’t translate into a static tone, however, and the tension and mournfulness of the individual conversations have a beautiful cumulative effect.

The major difference between Evelyn and Virginia, aside from the age gap that prevented them from becoming close as children, is the nature of their faiths.  Evelyn is a Catholic professor who has grown so used to her religion that she’s strayed from it, and finds herself unmoved by it.  She talks to Virginia as if she were her teacher (“the three fundamental principles of Catholicism are …”) or as if she were in the process of conscious lapsing (“I don’t think [suicide is] a sin”).   Virginia, on the other hand, has found an ample charism and for her part eschews tradition, institution, and sacrament: a member of cult in the Midwest, she was expelled because she had “things to learn,” and looks forward anxiously to returning.  Virginia makes her beliefs clearer to Evelyn through the course of the film, and it’s the sort of New Age hokiness that one could expect—but Virginia's charisma and conviction unsettle Evelyn (and the viewer), and her certitude is the counterpoint to Evelyn’s practice. 

Instead of coming off as a tame exposé of dichotomies, All the Ships at Sea explores the relationship between a creature of faith and a figure of tradition—both of whom gravitated to “religion” of their own volition.  The motivation that the film provides them is the perceived oppression of their parents, who—we gather—were not ones to foster childhood innocence and ignorance.  The unbridgeable spiritual gulf between Evelyn and Virginia seems to close a bit when they talk about their mother and father, suggestive that their different paths in faith were looking for the same, vague, liberatory destination.

If the intellectual caliber of the film is high and its complexity earned and unpretentious, I must stress that the rest of All the Ships at Sea reaches this level of excellence, too.  The performances are candid and unaffected, but highly professional and controlled.  Edith Meeks co-starred with McCormick (Father Joseph) in Sallitt’s previous feature, 1998’s unsettling Honeymoon.  She was very impressive in that film and only outdoes herself in this one.  The timing of her line deliveries is the key to Virginia’s convincing arguments—Meeks builds up to a bombshell, drops it, and then retreats into resignation and cynicism.  (“I know this is hard to believe,” might as well be her mantra when in Evelyn’s presence.)  Her body language occasionally reminds one of a wounded animal, suggesting possibilities in her character’s history too faint to be justly put into words.  Strawn Bovee was an unknown quantity to me before I saw her work here, but she’s remarkable.  A film and stage actor, she worked with Dan Sallitt in his video Polly Perverse Strikes Again!, and acted for the late video auteur-pioneer John Dorr, another personal blind spot but one Dan Sallitt and others count as an important figure. 

I’ve no idea if Dorr was some kind of influence on All the Ships at Sea, but Eric Rohmer and the late Maurice Pialat definitely were.  The latter, to whom All the Ships at Sea is dedicated, finds himself echoed in the unflinching and uncomfortable relationship portraits Dan Sallitt specializes in as a filmmaker.  But Sallitt is not as sour as the notorious (and great) Pialat, and some of that unforced amiability might come from Rohmer, whose exploratory retreats into the countryside—away from work and fast paces—are echoed in both Honeymoon and All the Ships at Sea.  Shot with no camera movement and warm, but precise lighting schemes by Sallitt and his DP Duraid Munajim, All the Ships has a particularity and reserve to it that stand out, positively,  amidst the ‘gimme distribution!’ films that seem to overrun the world of independent feature filmmaking.  This film deserves to play in front of thoughtful audiences, who would no doubt appreciate the experience it offers.

Evelyn (Strawn Bovee) and Virginia (Edith Meeks) contemplating God and their parents.
Harry Kalish, Copyright 2003

Director Dan Sallitt on the set.
Harry Kalish, Copyright 2003