Winter's Watch (2017) Online

Winter's Watch (2017) Online

Located ten miles off the coast of mainland New England, the Oceanic Hotel is the grand, yet far-from-modern home to the thousands of guests who brave the choppy seas to visit during the warmer spring and summer months. Off-season, the hotel and the 43-acre Star Island on which it sits is home to one woman - its winter caretaker who braves the colder, darker months of inclement weather by embracing the solitude and finding inspiration, and life, in what would otherwise be considered the 'bones' of winter.

Since 1997 (aside from Star Island staff, and a few of Alexandra de Steiguer's very small circle of friends) Producer/Director Brian Bolster is one of the only people ever to stay out on Star Island during the winter, shooting principal photography during almost all daylight hours for about a week in 2016.

Star Island, where this film was shot, is a 43-acre island, a portion of which contains 29 historic buildings that are in the Rye, NH historic district even though Rye, NH is six miles away over open ocean.

This film was shot on Star Island where the subject Alexandra de Steiguer is a lone caretaker during winter, but in the summer months, the island is home to vibrant "conferences" hosted by the Star Island Corporation that explore spirituality, art, social justice and more in an effort to, as they say, create "an environment that frees all who come to renew spiritually, explore matters of consequence, and gain knowledge about the world as it might ideally be."

The location of this film, Star Island, is in the Isles of Shoals which were "discovered" by Captain John Smith which is the reason why (on European maps made after 1614) they were called "Smith's Isles".

Star Island is unique in the sense that it is a cyclically ephemeral community that forms once every year - interdependent, socially and spiritually aware - but it is also a village with a centrally-controlled economy and ecology supported by a closely-managed infrastructure where everything that comes on the island is known, and everything that comes off is managed. The non-profit Star Island Corporation, has leveraged this unique collection of features to create an experimental eco-village based on spiritual and communitarian values that explores highly technical, 21st century solutions. As of 2015, it is the home of the largest off-grid solar installation in New England, it grinds and composts every shred of cardboard and paper that comes to the island, and works with state agencies to develop new eco-positive standards for waste management.

Though over 100 years ago, the Star Island Corporation was formed to manage the island specifically to support the annual Unitarian Universalist retreats that were formerly held in grand New England hotels located farther inland, today anyone can book passage on the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company ferry "Thomas Leighton" for a day-visit, or can book a room in the old hotel or one of the other historic buildings. People eat "family style" and enjoy the simplest of accommodations, but certain people find the qualities of the place irresistible and return every year. for generations.

The large hotel shown in the film is located on Star Island but is not originally one building. The original "Oceanic Hotel" was partially burned in 1875 (as had been many of the grand New England Hotels) and the remainder of it was pushed up against the "Atlantic House", with the "Gosport House" then moved to the eastern-most position in line, all connected by a roofed veranda in owner John Poor's effort to resurrect from the ruins something resembling the original Oceanic Hotel which had been a marvel of luxury and convenience located seven miles from shore. Today, this inspiring accommodation retains echoes of the grand optimism from which the original Oceanic Hotel was born and continues to house hundreds of delighted guests every year.

At the peak of Star Island's summer operation as a conference and retreat center each year, around 100 seasonal workers support the facility, an occupation consistently pegged into the top ten summer jobs in the US.