PROGRAMME

Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright
– Prelude
39 min, 2022, 16mm

Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright
– Oraison
30 min, 2022, 16mm

ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS

3rd February 2024
Cube Microplex, Bristol (w. BEEF)

7th February 2024
Star & Shadow, Newcastle

Based in Grenoble, France, Gaëlle Rouard is an alchemist making films since the early 90’s, specialising in film processing.

Sonic Cinema

Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright

Wed 31 January, 2024 7:30 pm
Cost: £12
Address:
Cafe OTO,
18-22 Ashwin St, London E8 3DL

Sonic Cinema presents a unique screening of Gaëlle Rouard’s atmospheric film diptych, Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright projected by the artist from her personal 16mm print.

Unfolding across two acts – Prelude and Oraison – Darkness Darkness, Burning Bright is a personal and poetic work full of expressive solarized nightscapes and pastoral unreality. The film draws us into a  crepuscular landscape, where animals and plants appear luminous and rendered in chiaroscuro, with the movements playing out through a series of tableau vivant composed from the combination of photochemically manipulated still and moving images. Produced using found sounds and drawing on the traditions of musique concrète and cinéma pour l’oreille (cinema for the ear), Rouard’s soundtrack oscillates between supporting ambience and pronounced narrative emphasis.

Gaëlle Rouard was present for a Q&A with Simon Field following the screening.

Programmed by Oliver Dickens for Sonic Cinema. Special thanks to Isabelle Manci & Angela Blanc at the Institut français.

Supported by Institute Francais Royaume-Uni.

Gaëlle Rouard (France) is a filmmaker and artist based in Grenoble.

Since 1991 she has been making films, specialising in photochemical processing and the possibilities of live multi-projection. She ran the Atelier MTK DIY film laboratory in Grenoble from 1996 to 2006, and is a longtime member of Le 102, rue d’Alembert, a venue dedicated to experimental music and film. Gaëlle’s work has been presented internationally at festivals and art centres such as the Centre Pompidou Paris, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Syros SIFF Film Festival and Brisbane Institute of Modern Art. Her latest film Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright (2022) has received awards in various festivals, including the Istanbul International Film Festival Award, the Experimental Competition Award at the Curtas de Vila do Conde and Best Sound Design at the Ann Arbor Film Festival (2023).