Number eight, everything is going to be alright

Filmed in one long shot, Number eight, everything is going to be alright shows Guido van der Werve walking across the frozen waters of the Arctic—a tiny figure in the great wide open. Behind the artist, a gigantic ship forges through the creaking ice, threatening to break open the very ground that van der Werve is walking on.

Over the course of ten minutes and ten seconds, the film establishes a stunningly simple and sublime image for a highly charged and complicated relationship—the triad of man, machine, and nature. Number eight speaks to the fragility of life; it frames nature as a hostile environment as much as it points toward mankind’s intrusion; and it deals as much with our dependence on technology as with its mastery.