File:Downriver with M.T. Kelly

Description
Downriver is a film that deals with the end of an important part of a man's life. It speaks of loss and grief, but is not an elegy. It is a celebration. Downriver uses poetry, music, and images to show how an inexhaustible responsiveness to nature creates a sense of possibilities; hope.

The vector to this new life is the beautiful dog, Niva, a Malinois. Her name comes from the Celtic goddess Nimah, usually pronounced Neeve -- though there are many variations! The myth of this goddess of the green wood is about the impossibility of resisting change. In the green and gold images Downriver projects on the screen, in the poetry, in the haunting music, in the movement and grace of a loving creature and fellow being, Downriver causes a rising of the heart. The audience experiences a sense of wonder, or call it the Grandeur of God: the numinous. Downriver is about attachment. It confirms a deep attachment to our fellow beings and creation. No matter how desperate and alone one creature may feel, that is not the way of things. There is connection. If the film speaks of what is past, passing, and to come, it confirms that Creation looks after its own and everything is brought around, full circle. This is a film that is not abstract in any way. It is particular, yet its language, images and music are wide as all the world.

Featuring

M.T. Kelly

Niva the Malinois

Directed by

Judith Keenan

with M.T. Kelly

Camera

Cat Cappuccio

Aria Evans

Editing

Paul Hart

Aria Evans, CMPA Trainee

Niva Footage

Courtesy M.T. Kelly

Sound Editor

Mike Filippov

MUSIC

Candlelight baroque

By freddiehangoler

Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No 11 in A Major

By Handel Premiere Classics, Getty Images

Produced by BookShorts Literacy Program

For MovingStories.TV

M.T. Kelly

www.mtkelly.ca

With the support of Canadian Heritage, Canada Book Fund

Inspired by the book

DOWNRIVER

Poems

By M.T. Kelly

Published by Exile Editions

(c) 2013 Copyright BookShorts Literacy Program