Made up of loose portraits of a landscape in icy Dawson City, on the border between Canada and Alaska – the mythical setting of the 1986 Klondike Gold Rush – “Optimism” is a gaze under the transformation of that territory. It starts with the foundation of the city (precisely in the context of the Gold Rush) and moves through the permanent confrontation between man and nature, so poetically suggested by the music Charlie Chaplin immortalised in “The Gold Rush” (1925). The story of that city is made up of the stories of the individuals who faced the climate and orographic adversities, anonymous people who shaped the landscape over the decades. Shot on Super 8, “Optimism” is a reflection on human desire, obsession, and persistence. A regular presence at Curtas, where she has won the Experimental Award twice – with “In Order not to be Here” (2003) and “Hacked Circuit” (2014) – multifaceted North American artist Deborah Stratman is back with a film that had its world premiere at the 2018 Berlinale. (PC)