¡Vivan Las Antipodas!

An Intriguing Example of Visual Poetry: A Sensory Experience As Opposed To A Traditional Documentary
I really liked the idea behind the lushly photographed "Vivan Las Antipodas." Filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky has prepared a study of contrasts when looking at the modern world. An antipode is a place on Earth that corresponds to another location if you travel directly through the planet's diameter. As so much of this world is made up of water, there aren't that many actual inhabited antipodes, but "Vivan Las Antipodas" examines four pairs. Admittedly, seven of the eight areas that we visit are sparsely populated at best. But this is more about examining images, creating a sort of visual poetry. With no narration and very little dialogue, the movie is not for every taste. But I thought it was an effective travelogue that benefited from interesting camera work, intriguing edits and transitions, and a beautiful score.

The four antipodal pairs documented:

1) The rural community of Entre Rios in Argentina is opposite the bustling vision of Shanghai, China...





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