Ghosts of the Sea
(Canada/France, 97 min.)
Dir. Virginia Tangvald
Program: Canadian Spectrum Competition
“The sea’s a very dangerous place,” states a navigator in Virginia Tangvald’s somber documentary debut Ghosts of the Sea. While the open water has long been compared to a taker of souls, going all the way back to the era of slavery, it holds an especially complicated place in the filmmaker’s heart.
Born on the water herself, and the daughter of famed Norwegian sailor and transatlantic race competitor Peter Tangvald, Virginia Tangvald’s roots in the ocean run deep. So do the many tragedies that have plagued her family. The most recent being the mysterious disappearance of her older brother Thomas at sea a decade ago. Ghosts of the Sea tells how Thomas vanished 23 years after Peter died in a shipwreck, which Virginia’s brother was also involved in. The events still haunt her to this day. Seeking answers to how a skilled sailor like Thomas could have vanished, Virginia embarks on an investigative journey that she hopes will offer some semblance of closure.
As Virginia quickly discovers on her journey, sometimes one needs to pick at old rough scabs for the wound to heal properly. In the filmmaker’s case, this means not only exploring Thomas’ life, but also the father that her brother deeply idolized. Painting a riveting and disturbing portrait of a man who was determined to pursue a life of freedom, Ghosts of the Sea highlights the dangers that come with those who conflate power and autonomy.
Peter may have presented himself as an adventurer who only needed the sea and his family for happiness, but he clearly had a dark side to him. His old-time views about a woman’s role and worth only helped to raise suspicions about the tragic deaths of two of his three wives at sea. One of which he claims occurred as a result of an attack by pirates, an incident where he and very young Thomas were the only survivors. As if cursed by the sea, the fact that Thomas was exposed to so much death at a young age, including losing a younger sister and stepmother in the shipwreck, no doubt had a profound impact on him.
Ghosts of the Sea presents Thomas as a man who craved a type of love and approval that his father could not give. Even when Tangvald’s brother had given up the sea to embrace a traditional life with his own family on land, there was a restlessness within him that he could not shake. Similar to Peter, he craved independence that more reflected his dad’s own desires rather than his own.
In capturing the parallels between father and son, Tangvald’s film presents a haunting exploration of fractured masculinity. One that clings to a false notion of absolute freedom with no boundaries except for the ones they place on others.
Sailing on the dark waters of the past, Ghosts of the Sea builds a poetic blueprint for how the male ego can tangle itself to the anchor of tragedy. Through archival footage of Thomas and Peter, and incorporating interviews with friends, navigation experts, family, and her own inner thoughts, Tangvald presents a vivid portrait of a family that has endured an unimaginable amount of grief. As her camera repeatedly lingers on the ocean, forcing the audience to contemplate both the vastness of nature and the shortsightedness of man, one cannot help but ponder what Thomas’ life might have been like had Peter not been an all-consuming destructive force.
An intriguing search for catharsis through the tall grass of tragedy, Ghosts of the Sea is a haunting work that lingers in the mind.
