The Beauty of Alamar

Alamar ("To the Sea") is a Mexican film of 2009.  It is not a story, but a song:

This is being a father, the best of it.

It is waking together, and eating, and working, and wrestling, and swimming and laughing and sleeping and then doing it together all over again.

It is building a home for the generations.

It is teaching your child your way of life.

It is the fresh smell of the sea, and oil and fish.

It is allowing him to get in your way, making your task harder and feeling the joy of the interruption.

It is seeing your child confidently do what you have done for so many years.

It is the way it’s been done since the old days.

It is letting them experience your life.

It is re-experiencing the wonder of life through a child’s eyes.

It is, in the end, not knowing who taught who.

The Reach, by Dan Fogelberg, which captures the soul, if not the place, of this film:

Please watch Alamar on Netflix Instant or Hulu. You won't regret it.

Thanks to pixote for introducing me to this gift of cinema.