Director MATHIEU LE LAY (France 2021) 53 min
With endless patience and tracking skills acquired over years, French wildlife photographer Jérémie Villet embarks on the difficult journey of photographing mountain goats in Canada’s Yukon, an area not known for mountain goats but certainly known for bitterly cold temperatures in snowcapped conditions. Fighting frostbite, frozen camera buttons, and various torments from the elements, Villet searches diligently for his subject in order to capture the perfect shot: a white animal against a white background, with color gradations so subtle it looks as if animal and environment have merged. Director Mathieu Le Lay, enduring the same conditions as Villet, follows his subject with a similar energy, weathering blizzards and slopes so steep they’re nearly impossible to traverse. At times the film archives a dreamlike quality, with falling snow shimmering against night skies and luminous but bitterly cold mornings. A White Dream documents the toll perfection takes and the beauty that results.
In French with English subtitles