This Is Not an Anchor, This Boat Is Not an Anchor | 11:10 | s16mm to HD | 2007

Through a dense mist we emerge into a foggy marshland. Slowly and achingly a mysterious landscape is revealed. Foghorns and sharp cuts jolt the meandering sense of place and memory, creating a sense of unease and anxiety within. – Images Festival

—
“Marianna Milhorat’s this is not an anchor, this boat is not an anchor [2007] reveals itself as if it were a dream, a mindscape where the physical world is made strange…. Milhorat does not mean to present us with mere information; she is scheming to instigate the workings of the mind back on itself, a consciousness observing its own meditations…. this is not an anchor… de-emphasize[s] the action that typically fills memoir and concentrate[s] instead on the subjective reckoning of encounters with the world. What endures through time is longing, learning, loss, or more precisely, the content of our self-conscious awareness.” – Cheyanne Turions, The Enduring (Cineworks Independent Filmmakers)

“This Is Not an Anchor, This Boat Is Not an Anchor de Marianna Milhorat dévoile lentement un paysage aquatique qui se construit progressivement sur l’ecran, créant des textures de flous et un sfumato que n’aurait certes pas reniés le peintre William Turner.” – Louis Goyette, Les artilleurs de la tireuse optique (24 Images)

“Milhorat’s work forms a link from George Semsel and ‘60s New American Cinema, to Hancox and the “Escarpment School” filmmakers of the late-70s and early-80s, to their students… of the ‘90s and ‘00s; thereby connecting five generations of educators and pupils.  [T]he proof of [the Escarpment School’s] importance can be found in the thirty-plus years of intensely subjective, formally daring films, films that continue to be made and celebrated to this day.” – Brett Kashmere, The Road Ended at the Beach and Other Legends (Winnipeg Cinematheque)
—

Awards:
Technicolor Cinematic Vision Award, Images Festival
Badass Flood of the Century Award, Iowa City Experimental Film Festival
Honorable Mention, EX-Now, Experimental Film & Video Festival in Seoul
3rd Place, H20: Film on Water, Newport Mill Gallery