Detour: The Landscape of Travel on Film

Also of Interest

Exhibitions Detour: Architecture and Design along 18 National Tourist Routes in Norway January 28, 2009 - May 25, 2009 You Might Also Like Deborah Moore Sorensen

As a complement to the exhibition Detour, the Museum presented a film series called Detour: The Landscape of Travel on Film, exploring the points of contact between individuals and their environment, when they intentionally enter into unfamiliar territory.

This ability to experience environments that might otherwise be inaccessible has been at the heart of film's popular attraction. In 1896, the Lumière brothers dispatched Cinématographe operators around the globe to promote their new camera and to collect imagery of exotic locales. The resulting catalogue of travel films, or 'vues,' originated the filmic tradition of foregrounding natural landscapes for public amusement that persists today. 

In this three-week series, Ann Hornaday, Washington Post film critic, and Deborah Sorensen, curatorial associate at the Museum, introduced films featuring unexpected and powerful encounters with the natural world.