Life Without Death (2000)
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Television Suisse Romande Prize for Best Feature Visions du Reel International Documentary Festival (Nyon, Switzerland)"A rare example of the truth being more extraordinary than the fiction."
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Narrative
Life Without Death is an intense personal account of filmmaker Frank Cole's Guinness Record crossing of the Sahara Desert by camel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. In the course of his journey, as he overcomes thirst, loneliness and getting lost, Cole is also forced to confront his own mortality.
Striking images of his Saharan odyssey and flashbacks of his aging grandfather timelessly fuse with an evocative music score by Richard Horowitz to create an unsettling meditation on death and a powerful cry for life.
a Frank Cole Film/Necessary Illusions Productions
Guinness Book of World Records Entry Crossing of Africa
On November 29, 1989, Frank Cole, a Canadian, departed from Nouakchott, Mauritania, and crossed the African continent from west to east via the Sahara Desert alone by camel. He arrived in Suakin, Sudan on November 3, 1990 after having travelled 7,100 km.
"I travelled from well to well in order to replenish my water supply and stocked up on food when I encountered nomads. In Sudan I was attacked by robbers. Suspected of being a spy I was imprisoned in Chad. I suffered continuously from fatigue and loneliness."
Frank Cole
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Awards and Distinctions
* International Critics' Prize
Thessaloniki Images of the 21st Century
International Documentary Film Festival
* Special Jury Mention
DocAviv International Documentary Film Festival (Tel-Aviv)
* Certificate of Merit - Golden Gate Awards
San Francisco International Film Festival
* Nominated "Best Feature"
Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival
* Film Competition
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
* International Competition
International Film Festival Mannheim - Heidelberg
* International Competition
Munich International Documentary Film Festival
Score
The music for LIFE WITHOUT DEATH is scored by influential New Music composer Richard Horowitz. Horowitz is a North African music specialist who plays a wide range of instruments including the ney, an obliquely played reed flute. Recommended to Bernardo Bertolucci by novelist Paul Bowles, Horowitz composed the North African influenced score for Bertolucci's screen adaptation of Bowles' The Sheltering Sky. Horowitz received a Golden Globe Award and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for these compositions. He recently scored the music track for Toni Bui's Sundance hit Three Seasons and made a musical contribution to Oliver Stone's film Any Given Sunday.
Horowitz's latest Sony Classics CD release with Sussan Deyhim (who also performs vocals in LIFE WITHOUT DEATH) is entitled MAJOUN.
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Sahara Theme |
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Life Without Death |
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Live |
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Alive |
Credits
Director: Frank Cole
Producers: Francis Miquet, Frank Cole
Cinematographers: Frank Cole (Sahara), Francis Miquet (Canada)
Music Score: Richard Horowitz
Vocals Sussan Deyhim
Editors: Frank Cole
Francis Miquet
Additional Camera: Jean-Yves Dion, Ralph Kiers
Optical Camera: François Aubry
Animation Camera: Farzin Farzaneh
Sound Engineer: Morris Apelbaum
Produced with the Assistance of: Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council, National Film Board of Canada, Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton
Distribution
Released 2000, 35mm film, 83 mins., English
Released theatrically in Canada and France Broadcast on Arte, (Lucarne) and other European and Canadian TV networks
Versions
French subtitled
58 mins broadcast version
France
K-Films
7,rue Commines
75003 Paris
tel : 33-1-42747014
www.k-films.fr
kfilms [at] noos [dot] fr
All other terrritories
Necessary Illusions Productions
24 Avenue du Mont-Royal Ouest, Suite 1008
Montréal, Québec, Canada H2T 2S2
Téléphone: (+1) (514) 287-7337
E-mail: info [at] necessaryillusions [dot] ca