Borrowed Time

A woman finds peace during the pandemic in her solitary routine as the innkeeper of an historic Bay Area lighthouse. As her time on the island draws to an end and a return to the world she left behind beckons, life on the island raises larger questions about our relationship to the natural world, time, work, and home.

Watch Trailer

COMING SOON

For over a century, the East Brother Light Station has stood defiantly in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, more a harbor to the gulls and cormorants who nest on its jagged cliffs than those rare individuals who have called the island home over the years. Once solely a beacon for passing ships, East Brother has, for several decades now, functioned as a temporary reprieve from city life for weekend tourists, who can embrace nostalgia at the now converted bed and breakfast. This all changed, however, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the inn at East Brother shuttered entirely, leaving only its keeper, a woman named Desiree, alone on the island. Unadorned, observational cinematography immerses the viewer into the rhythm of Desiree’s life on the island. The simple bliss of routine and self-sufficiency is punctuated by Desiree’s growing relationship with the island’s natural beauty. But a plaintive undercurrent moves throughout the film, announcing to the viewer what Desiree, —such an existence, at least in these times, is destined to end. In its intimate depiction of a one-of-a-kind experience, Borrowed Time invites larger questions about what is lost in a rapidly changing world.

“On the island there is no time. There are seasons. There’s weather. There are tides.”

Borrowed Time

A film by
Palmer Morse & Derek Knowles

Featuring
Desiree Heveroh

Sound Mix & Design
Matt Mikkelsen

Music
Eluvium

Colorist
Alice Abrams