Discoveries from French Southern Territories World Cinema

The vessel is Infinity, a 120-foot hand-built sailboat, crewed by a band of miscreants. The journey, an 8,000 mile Pacific crossing from New Zealand to Patagonia, with a stop in Antarctica. Unlike all the other boats heading to the Southern Ocean, Infinity is no ice-reinforced super-yacht crewed by professional sailors; rather, Infinity lives in the moment and sails on a whim. What can be found in abundance on board is blood, sweat, enthusiasm, risk tolerance, disdain for authority, and an ample supply of alcohol – all in all a mad voyage of reckless adventure just for the sheer joy of it. Along the way the crew will battle a hurricane of ice in the Ross Sea, assist the radical environmental group Sea Shepherd in their fight with illegal whalers, and tear every sail they have. At the heart of their journey is a quest for awe and a sense of wonder with the raw power of the natural world.

13,000 km from mainland France, Crozet, Kerguelen, and Amsterdam are so isolated that even today they can only be reached by boat. No one has ever lived there permanently, except for shipwreck survivors or the unfortunate executors of unfeasible projects. But around these jagged coasts, a history of adventure has been built: that of the Chevalier de Kerguelen, who believed he had discovered a new Eldorado; that of seal and whale hunters, explorers, and industrialists who dreamed of “colonizing” these barren islands... Ruins, shipwrecks, and tiny remains tell the story, and logbooks are opened. All reflect a fascination with these islands, which seem to hide themselves away as if to protect a mystery.