Hot Docs 2008

A breathtaking journey into the mysterious life, death and afterlife of Frank Cole, a brilliant, enigmatic filmmaker obsessed with his art, the Sahara, life, and most compellingly, death. His formally inventive films explored his fascination with mortality, which was also his fuel for life. Director Korbett Matthews fluidly wraps Cole's haunting film footage around interviews with his family and friends to construct a fitting meta-narrative for a man whose art and life were indistinguishable. Dreaming of conquering his nemesis, the Sahara, and armed with only with his Bolex camera, Cole made the gruelling 7,300-kilometre, 11-month journey by camel across the cadaver-littered desert. Over the next 10 years, Cole worked obsessively on the film he shot there, Life Without Death. When it was almost complete, Cole went back to shoot more footage but tragically, he was never to return. The Man Who Crossed the Sahara is a gripping cinematic tale of artistic passion taken to the limits of human endurance.
-Gisèle Gordon