The Canadian feature documentary Geographies of Solitude by Jacquelyn Mills won three prizes at the Berlin Film Festival.

The story of conservationist Zoe Lucas and her work and life on Nova Scotia’s Sable Island took the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in the Forum programme, worth 2,500 Euros (about C$3,600), as well as the CICAE Art Cinema Award and the Caligari Film Prize, worth 4,000 Euros (about C$5,700).

Montreal-based Mills directed, edited and did the cinematography on the doc, which made its world premiere at Berlinale. The Cape Breton Island, N.S.-born filmmaker also produced it, with Rosalie Chicoine Perreault. Brad Mills is executive producer.

Geographies of Solitude was supported by the Sundance Documentary Fund and Cannes: Docs in Progress. Acéphale is the Canadian distributor.

Mills captured Lucas on 16mm film as she made her daily trips around the remote island in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, where she has lived for over 40 years and studied its population of wild horses, for which the island is famous. She also diligently collects litter that washes up on its shores.

Mills’ previous films include In the Waves, which won awards including the Grand Jury Prize at the New Hampshire International Film Festival and Best Documentary and Best Edit at Atlantic International Film Festival. She has worked as editor, sound designer and cinematographer for the National Film Board of Canada.

The 72nd Berlinale ran in-person with COVID-19 protocols from Feb. 10 to 16. The festival is also featuring repeat screenings of the films in Berlin cinemas up to Feb. 20.

Quebec director Denis Côté’s Un été comme ça (That Kind of Summer) screened in competition as a majority co-production from Metafilms (Canada) and Cinéfrance Studios (France).

Other Canadian films in this year’s lineup included Queens of the Qing Dynasty from director-producer Ashley McKenzie of Cape Breton Island (Hi-Vis Films); Cette maison (This House), directed by Miryam Charles and produced by Félix Dufour-Laperrière of Embuscade Films; and the French-language series Last Summers of the Raspberries (Le temps des framboises), produced by Montreal’s Trio Orange in collaboration with Quebecor Content.

Photo credit: Jacquelyn Mills