In director Joshua Bonnetta’s rare quasi-ethnographic, an educational documentary study of “second sight” we’re taken to the far reaches of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, where we encounter residents who tell stories about personal hauntings and what may or may not be some sort of extrasensory perception experienced by these locals in the already eerie open spaces of rural Scotland where beings in the spirit world would seem to outnumber those on this rugged, forbidding terrestrial plane.
The Two Sights is a slow, quiet moody film shot in 16mm that moves almost with a trance-like quality, with its mesmerizing imagery of life on these remote islands. There’s the fisherman who has a life-changing experience trying to care for a beached whale and is convinced that the unsettling mental disturbance he was feeling from trying to help the whale was its attempts to communicate via ultrasonic waves that can’t be heard by a human but perhaps, in this case, felt.
The documentary captures the stories of other locals, including tales about canine skeletons, mysterious deaths of loved ones, and submerged villages, all with an element of the supernatural attached to them. But the film’s clear passion for the sensory, as well as extrasensory, comes out as well, capturing the minute aural details of the landscape and combining that with a contemplative, patient eye for striking visual detail.
Director Bonnetta’s artful presentation of these images and sounds invites the viewer to participate in this experience and begin pushing the limits of their own sensory perception. Whether the filmgoer can find their own “second” sight through this experience is debatable, but whatever the case, The Two Sights is a mesmerizing, hypnotic detour from the usual paint-by-numbers educational documentary.
What type of college/university professors would find this title valuable?
Any film studies educators as well as philosophy or metaphysics classes.
Would this film be suitable for an outdoor screening?
Yes, especially given its emphasis on nature and ecosystems, etc.
What public library shelves would this title be on?
Any that have educational/independent film sections.
Discover more titles with our list of environment movies.