Guardians Of The Night

Before the advent of "radar" and other navigational aids, seafaring vessels relied quite heavily on lighthouses to steer them clear of rocky shoals and shallow waters. Filmmaker Francoise Levie has put together an engaging tribute to these "guardians of the night," detailing the construction of lighthouses built in the 18th and 19th centuries in France, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. In addition to tracing the development of lighthouses, refinements to the all-important beacon, and improved access for lighthouse keepers (historically, the changing of the shift at sea-based lighthouses has been rather tricky business), the program also looks at some famous lighthouse keepers of yore (the legendary Grace Darling, for instance), and interviews contemporary keepers, including Gerry Cantwell, a 6th-generation lighthouse keeper. A demanding job, some keepers spent an estimated 10 out of 15 years at the lighthouse working month-long shifts (which made for some warm welcomes in those families which survived). Today, however, the lighthouse keeper is more likely to be a machine than a man, and Guardians of the Night is ultimately more of a nicely filmed retrospective of an age which has passed. Recommended. (Available from: Janson Associates, Plaza West, 88 Semmens Rd., Harrington Park, NJ 07640; (201) 784-8488.)