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EEL, 16mm transferred to 4k, 2024 WIP
For centuries, the life cycle of eels has been shrouded in mystery. According to myth, legend and gossip, eels evolved from horsehair submerged in water. The first recorded evidence of scientists looking into this phenomenon dating back to the 4th century BC. Recent satellite-based tracking data has proved that eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea and their larvae return to the UK and other European waters carried on ocean currents on the North Atlantic Drift. They then migrate into rivers as glass eels. It is estimated that around 100 million eels swim from the Sargasso Sea, up the Bristol Channel towards the wetlands and marshes of the Somerset Levels. The migration however has been in steep decline (90-95% since the 1980’s) due to draining the land for agricultural purposes and human habitation. Amid spiraling ecological devastation, EEL becomes narrator, messenger and oracle, investigating the entanglements between place, history and ecology from a more-than-human perspective.