Tim Severin

TIM SEVERIN'S VOYAGE

A myth chaser's journey...

SYNOPSIS

One of the greatist adventurers of the 20th century, Tim Severin, learned very recently that a 16mm film negative of his first great adventure, The Brendan Voyage, the crossing of the Atlantic in the replica of a 6th century leather boat, has been miraculously rediscovered having been missing for 20 years. It is fitting that the negative turns up now as 2007 marks the 30th Anniversary of the arrival of Tim and his crew in Newfoundland aboard their fragile open curragh in June 1977.

Taking advantage of modern technology, Tim Severin and the film production company Lugh Films decide to undertake a complete restoration of the film which documents this extraordinary odyssey, adding to it elements that its author would not have allowed himself at the time.

The re-mastering, faithful to the original, also offers an opportunity to take stock of Tim Severin’s life which has until now never been brought to the screen. A life devoted to experimental marine archaeology and the quest for the truth behind the myths of the great civilisations.

Drawing on his audio-visual and literary work, Tim Severin will open the doors to the mysteries of his life, uncovering the person behind his own myths as adventurer.

Fifteen centuries later, it will also be a chance for us to return to the mysterious legend of St Brendan, certain elements of which lead one to believe that this 6th century monk could perhaps have been the first to cross the Atlantic to the New World.

THE REMASTERING OF
“THE BRENDAN VOYAGE”

Background
This is Tim Severin‘s account of “The Brendan Voyage”, an epic transatlantic voyage in the path of St. Brendan and his monks (6th century AD) undertaken by Tim Severin and his crew in a fragile leather boat arriving in Newfoundland in June 1977.
The Success of this expedition opened the door to all the new theories of the discovery of the New World a long time before Christopher Columbus.

The Brendan Voyage” book has not been out of print in the past 30 years, the book is second “only” in international sales to Heyerdahls ‘KonTiki’ in that particular genre of documentation of great voyages.
Millions of copies of this book have been sold all over the world and over the years it has appeared in at least 30 languages. The Brendan Voyage book has won numerous global awards including Gold Medals from The Royal Geographical Society and The Scottish Royal Geographical Society, The Christopher Prize, The Literary Medal of The Academy de la Marine, a Book of the Sea Award, a Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and many more awards all over the world.

The main expeditions led by Tim Severin - from the Brendan Voyage through to The China Voyage (across the Pacific in a bamboo raft) - were all cover stories in National Geographic Magazine over a span of years; it remains the longest sequence of such cover stories by a single expedition author in the magazine’s history.

All Tim Severin’s expeditions have been documented in bookform, the films produced have been screened on the biggest channels like BBC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and others. Tim Severin and his work is recognised and admired all over the world, the Brendan Voyage remains the more intense documentary ever made about a sea expedition in the in the last 32 years.

The success of the book is phenomenal and the new edition of the Brendan Voyage book last year in the UK and in Ireland proved yet again that it still very much captures the attention and the imagination of the public.

Shaun Davey has recently directed the Brendan track with the RTÉ Philharmonic Orchestra in Dublin and both he and Tim Severin are delighted to be involved in this exciting project.





A theatrical version.
The new version will have a complete new sound track with new voice over and new music with a new transfer from the original negative, we will add new maps, new documents and some extracts of the original Latin text of the Brendan Voyage. All these news elements will give a new look to this documentary and in the same will keep the deepest and strongest parts of the original work by Tim.

The new edition of The Brendan Voyage will conquest a large public from the oldest to the youngest.
This is a heroic story of human adventure, landmark maritime historical documentation and an important chapter in the quest for our Irish heritage, the Brendan Voyage will be a perfect study item for schools, universities and the general public audience.
For this we will print a few 35mm copies for the cinema and festivals

The first screening of this National Heritage documentary will be accompanied by a big media promotion. We will screen the film in a big Irish city (either Dublin/Galway/Cork) We will invite the national philharmonic RTÉ Orchestra to play Shaun Davey’s music to a live audience.

There are a few good examples of similar events in Europe like the premiere of the «Cuirasse Potemkin» de S. Eisenstein in Paris with a the National philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France or the premiere of the remastered «Poitín» during the Galway Film Fleadh 2007.



A two disc DVD package for 2010.
1. The DVD will offer the new Brendan Voyage, re-mastered with Shaun Davey’s music,
a new voice over and new editing from the original negative.
2. The First documentary about Tim Severin’s life filmed throughout the making off the
re-mastering and accompanying Tim as he re-traces his life’s paths in various parts of the world.
3. BONUS: 2 x 13 minutes about St Brendan’s boat and lives of the monks during their
trips around islands of the UK and Ireland between the 5th and the 9th centuries.
4. Archives of similar expeditions like the St Efflam (De Navigatio, France) or the Colmcille in Coleraine (Northern of Ireland)