PublisherBeaches are among the most mysterious, alluring and implacable features in our environment. Like living creatures, they grow, they die, they feed, they starve, they respond to stress, they adapt to change. A beach is an ambiguous zone, an ecological frontier which belongs as much to the ocean as to the land. Beaches seem timeless, and yet they are constantly transforming themselves. Their ceaseless movement dramatically demonstrates that nature itself is a vast panorama of flux and change — and those changes clash, sometimes violently, with the human longing for permanence.
But what is a beach? How is it formed, and how does it move and change? What impact does the beach have on human beings, and what impact do we have on the beach? What does science know about beaches?
This video is based largely on a long journey down the east coast of North America with film-maker Charlie Doucet, supplemented by archival footage and by additional footage captured by Silver Donald during a trip down the west coast from BC to California. Dramatic and provocative.
A Needham Gate Production, broadcast by Vision TV and ATV. No longer available for sale.