The Cartographer

Filmed on location in Snowdonia in Wales and Bristol in England, The Cartographer is a short feature film about nature and technology, and what happens when they collide. A sweet and strange, funny and profound story about getting lost, letting go and finding your way again. It's full of memorable human characters - helmet-cammed wandering city-dwellers, tramping prophets, video-game-addicted goatkeepers, and an accidental mystic - and full, too, of the non-human life that hums all around us. There is mystery, and maybe even magic, everywhere- in the gentle buzz of microprocessors, the sound of wind and insects, in each human breath and in the humbling of humankind. A man at loose ends is hired by a tech firm to walk trails while wearing a helmet-camera, mapping the Welsh countryside. Along his day's walk, he gradually abandons technology and leaves his old life behind. This simple and profound story speaks to our deep hunger for nature and interpersonal connection. It is urgent because we need new fables for a post-technological future. It's important because our wild places need us to pay attention - to switch off, tune in, deeply look and listen.