Not just another film.

Sean Penn said once that film was too important a medium to waste. And if you were going to just use it to have fun, then why not get a hooker and an eight ball and find a hotel room. Now, while I don’t share Sean’s proclivity for the latter, I do agree with his statement to the former. It’s really hard to believe in film when you see so much of what passes for it these days.

Until now.

Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert reinforces his point. If you’re an art director, an artist, musician, actor, filmmaker, poet, whoever you are, whatever you do, this film is not to be missed.

Stunning photography and composition, sparse soundtrack with a compelling narrative by Laurence Fishburne make this worth seeking out. (Fishburne’s read of the narrative is so good, I’d pay to hear him read the phone book.)

Maybe this movie stunned me because of the steady diet of Hollywood and so-called “independent’ films I’ve been on for so long. That by default, I couldn’t help but be amazed because this film elevates the genre to a new level when compared to the Pulp Cinema phase we seem to be in now.

Or perhaps, it just shakes off the many layers of crap the industry has built-up over the years and gets back to what filmmakers wanted film to be, but lost sight.

Film is a director’s medium. You can’t help but notice how much Colbert’s photographic experience informs this film and his decisions as a director, to the point the photography is the performance. This film feels so intimate, yet looks so epic.

Epic.

A word I hardly use anymore. How can I? I see no films designed to be that these days. Maybe some great shots are thrown in here and there, but for the most part, the genre seems lost. Hero may be the closest film I can remember of recent times that you’d have to have in the same discussion. Even still, seems like membership in the David Lean fan club is nil.

Still, no description does this work justice. Because it is epic, even on a small scale. Snow was filmed in slow-motion and finished entirely in cepia tones. It is a portrait of humans living alongside the animal kingdom. Director Gregory Colbert based this film on the international exhibitions of his large-scale prints of animals he documented over the years, told through fictionalized letters from a man on a journey.

Is it a documentary? Commentary? Work of fiction? Yes. No. Maybe. It could be all of these things, yet, it doesn’t really matter. From a cinematic POV, the opening scene rivals anything I’ve ever seen on film and lets you know that it could be all of that.

A world-class photographer, Colbert took a decade off to travel around the world to shoot. (You can also read more on his and the film’s background here.) Even the design of the main menu screen is gorgeous. Problem is, like anything this great, it’s also hard to find.

Ironic the film is about a journey, because that’s what will be required to seek it out anywhere. Hollywood Video or Blockbuster don’t list it online, not that I’d expect they would, so the only option appears to be to buy it via the film’s website here.

Just be cautioned, it’s expensive. Although it may also be the only film I’d pay $50 to own, and is certainly at home in any film collection. A nice design touch is that the DVD is also wrapped in a handmade bound cover made from a unique Nepalese paper finished with Beeswax. Once you open that, you know you’re about to experience something special.

Indeed.