International Competition

Artist and filmmaker Sharon Lockhart is known for creating beautiful, meditative films that incorporate subtle movement and a static, photographic gaze to examine her subjects. In ‘Lunch Break’, the camera is entirely untethered, slowly moving in a single tracking shot through a long corridor where workers are enjoying their lunch hour at the Bath Iron Works, a massive shipyard in Maine. As viewers, we must completely abandon conventional narrative expectations and let ourselves be transported into the atmosphere and idiosyncratic details of life at the shipyard. We develop a sense of comfort and sentimental camaraderie with the workers as they enjoy restful moments amidst productive labor. When the final frame passes the shutter, we have become so enmeshed with shipyard life that we don’t want it to end.