Artist Statement

A woman tells the story of a journey she made on a cargo boat to the Middle East. A video commissioned by the International film festival Rotterdam for the project “On the Waterfront” (ARTE prize for Best European Short Film, 48th Oberhausen Short Film Festival / First Prize, Video-ex 2002, Festival of Experimental Film and Video, Zurich.)

Additional statement about the work
“CARGO” is the story of a journey, I made on a container ship with a group of Rumanian and Phillipino sailors, who were delivering cargo to the Middle East. I stayed on the ship six weeks. The sailors weren’t allowed to leave the boat and they spent their days waiting, singing karaoke and telling me stories in a small TV room. In Syria, the ports were military zones. I hid at a porthole and secretly filmed the life below: a man stealing wood, a soldier fishing off the edge of an abandoned submarine. Later, I took the most abstract images and made a narrative, that falls between reality and fiction. It was my way of showing the limbo these men were living in.(Laura Waddington 2001)

• Laura Waddington was born in London in 1970. After studying English Literature at Cambridge University, she moved to New York, where she made short films and videos. She presently lives in Paris. Filmography includes The Visitor (92), The Room (94), ZONE (95) The Lost Days (99), CARGO (2001).