Tickets
MEMBERS: FREE, RSVP Required
Non-Members: $10
Jack Evans, screenwriter and director, presents an immersive evening of Long Island’s vital legacy of maritime storytelling in the film adaptation of the Peter Matthiessen masterpiece, Far Tortuga. Join us at The Church for a live talk with Jack, a trailer screening of the film, and a theatrical performance and live reading of the script.
Staring into the space between human spirituality and the worldview of other species, Far Tortuga follows the lives of the last turtle fisherman of the Grand Cayman. The story investigates the belief systems of subsistence hunters, the colonial consequences alive in the 1960’s Caribbean, and tells an astonishing moral fable about the overconsumption of the ocean’s bounty.
Since 2021 the crew of independent filmmakers of Another World Entire Productions, led by Evans, have followed in Mattheissen’s footsteps and the trail blazed by all the East Coast maritime storytellers before him. Shot on location in the Cayman Islands and Belize, the film project has become a magnetic point for artists, historians, and adventurers. Supported by the late author’s family and friends at The Peter Matthiessen Center and in the spirit of Moby Dick and early Werner Herzog Films, Far Tortuga confronts the contradictory human nature of consumption and closeness with other species.
At the end of the event, there will be a Q & A with Jack, the cast and crew, as well as the family and friends of The Peter Matthiessen Center. Light refreshments will be served.
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Jack Evans is an anthropologically trained journalist and screenwriter from Tennessee. His fascination with mythologies, literature and wildernesses have led him from academic studies at the University of Edinburgh to conservation work across rural Tanzania and Zambia. He comes from a family of poets, painters and professors, and has pursued his writing craft at a professional level from the age of eleven. Jack wrote, directed and produced AWE’s premiere short film, Eden River, and is the co-creator of a miniseries with Cole Hauser and has been a close collaborator of his late mentor, Cormac McCarthy.
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Joe Taylor and Ramsden Madeus are New York City-based actors of Caribbean descent and co-stars in Another World Entire’s award-winning short film, Eden River. Joe and Ramsden are already cast in key roles in Far Tortuga as that production develops, and will be performing a 20-minute adaptation of the film’s main themes live at The Church. Join us after their performance to hear their perspectives on filming in the remote Caribbean and carrying their own heritage to a new generation with this movie.
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Far Tortuga is a feature film currently in development by the independent crew of Another World Entire Productions. Set in Grand Cayman at the end of the age of sail, the story follows nine subsistence fishermen signed onto a voyage to harvest sea turtles off the Central American coast. In their struggles with an abusive captain, overfished waters and their own fears of turtling’s spiritual consequences, all fail to notice that something is hunting them. Far Tortuga is as much a psychological thriller as it is an anthropology piece and a morality play. To be a part of Far Tortuga through donation or investment, contact jack@anotherworldentire.com
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Guided by the legacy of one of America’s most distinguished writers and naturalists, Peter Matthiessen–an early and eloquent advocate for a more socially just, environmentally sound, and spiritually conscious world–the Peter Matthiessen Center seeks to provide a collaborative forum for writers, thinkers and activists in pursuit of innovative solutions to heal our endangered planet. On account of his prodigious contributions to literature, advocacy for the natural world and Indigenous peoples, as well as American Zen during his five decades on the East End of Long Island, we strive to create thoughtful programming–inspiring generations to come. Visit www.mattheissencenter.org for more.