Produced for the National Federation of Building Workers Ciné-Liberté, a Popular Front organization intended to counteract capitalist interests in the film industry, Epstein’s union documentary examines building policy from the perspective of ordinary workers and notable architects. In addition to touring the Cathedral of Chartres and the Paris Exposition of 1937, the film features rare interviews with Le Corbusier (at his drawing board, no less) and Auguste Perret.

Anxious over her fisherman lover’s absence, a young Breton woman seeks the aid of an old tempestaire or “storm tamer.” The sorcerer’s magic ball becomes a figure for cinema’s incantatory power in this, Epstein’s most mysterious and sublime ode to the sea.

A fitting swan song to Epstein’s lifelong obsession with the sea, this poetic essay on the worldwide network of lighthouses marvels at the international coordination to maintain these structures, the fortitude of their keepers, and technological innovations to lenses and illumination. Even so, the sea remains implacable. Asked what motivated his maritime films, Epstein said it was his fear of the ocean—“[a] fear that demands we do what we fear to do.”