Curator’s notes

“Hutton’s exquisite images, precise, observational style, and use of long takes and silence encourage the mind to roam. These ships come to seem like inspiriting physical measures of mankind’s outsized capacity for hard work and boundless imagination, by which we overcome the isolation of the human condition.” – Film Comment

“A breath of fresh air... For thirty years now, Peter Hutton has been building a radical and singular body of work. A sort of primitive documentary, silent, which celebrates the beauty of the world without forgetting to observe people, the conditions they live and work under. At Sea, his latest 16mm film shot silent and in color, deals with the giant cargo ships on which he spent a large part of his youth traveling the world’s oceans. It’s hard to find other words to describe its beauty than poetic documentary, or documentary poetry. A sensitive approach comes before anything, with meaning taking a back seat to the vibrancy of forms and colors. Hutton starts the film with a handful of shots of the construction of a boat at a Korean shipyard, before embarking on a voyage made up of some of the most gorgeous sea views ever committed to celluloid: shades of grey on both sides of the horizon, pleats of waves and rounded shapes of clouds. The film ends on a beach in Bangladesh, a cemetery for cargo ships where children and teenagers in rags strip these pollution plants with their bare hands. Not a sound is heard, not a word is spoken, just two dozen hypnotic shots in which Hutton brings together heaven and hell, in a striking portrait of globalization and ecological disaster. With his lion’s mane and tanned seafarer’s skin, the director looks proud and speaks eloquently and generously.” – Cahiers du cinéma

In the past thirty years, Peter Hutton has produced over twenty films – silent cinematic portraits of cities and landscapes from around the world. He has also worked as a professional cinematographer. Hutton studied painting, sculpture and film at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has taught filmmaking at Hampshire College, Harvard University, SUNY Purchase and is currently Chairman of The Bard College Film And Electronic Arts Program where he has taught since 1984.

His work has been shown in major museums and festivals in the U.S .and Europe. He is the recipient of grants from National Endowment of the Arts, DAAD Berlin, Rockefeller Foundation, Dutch Film Critics Prize, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, among many others. Hutton's films are distributed by Canyon Cinema in San Francisco.

Recent work

At Sea, 2004-7, b/w & color 60 mins silent
Skagafjordur, 2002-4 b/w & color 35 mins silent
Two Rivers, 2001-2 b/w & color 45 mins silent
Looking at the Sea, 2000-1 b/w & color silent 18 mins
Time And Tide, 1998-2000 35 b/w & color silent 35 mins
Study of a River, 1994-6 b/w silent 16 mins
Lodz Symphony, 1992-3 b/w silent 16 mins