The Pine Barrens

Feature Documentary/Live Documentary Performance

Screened with live score performed by The Ruins of Friendship Orchestra

2019 104 minutes

Full Project at www.pinebarrensfilm.com

The Pine Barrens is a film that explores the symbiotic, yet frequently destructive relationship between man and nature in a strange and unlikely wilderness within New Jersey — the most densely populated state in the US. Through intimate moments with individuals in connection with the land, The Pine Barrens reveals the influence of place on identity during a period of gradual loss; of both a way of life and of the environment that gave birth to it.

Simulating the effect of folklore past down through aural traditions, evolving 2012-2018 editions of The Pine Barrens, were presented as a “living” documentary, created as several experimental shorts and a semi-improvisational score. These editions were intended to present the New Jersey Pinelands and a place whose character was always in flux and unknowable. A festival version of the feature length film was completed in 2019.

Produced and directed by David Scott Kessler