Tracing Light

Theatrical Release January 16, 2025

Synopsis

Tracing Light explores the most fascinating and significant of natural phenomena – light, with leading artists and physicists and with nature itself, as they develop artworks through which the ineffable nature of light is made tangible to our senses.


A film is time, sound and light. I have made a film about time, Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy working with Time and about sound, Touch the Sound – a Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie. Now comes Tracing Light. Light is everywhere. Without light there is no life. But light is much more; it is a language only visible when in communication with matter, which in turn, changes it. The information gained, transported by light, is how we understand the origin of the universe, the quantum world. Light is beautiful, magic – and totally incomprehensible. In contemplating light with physicists and artists, we are set in place in a universe much greater than ourselves.
After two years of research and filming, I am still fascinated. Sometimes, when listening to the physicists my head wants to explode, and when watching a thin bright white line reflected at the horizon of the sea my heart wants to jump. I don´t want to explain light with this film; one can only fail with such an agenda. I want us to consider and talk about the incredible magic of the world we are living in – its beauty and its mystery, which are, by far, greater than we are.
The three storylines are unique, each with its own focus; each looks and feels different. As different as the stories, are the characters – Joe and Ruth being very scientific in their approach, Julie with a great intuition and feel for the light around her and Johannes and Raimund with a deeply human approach and hint of humour. We will not only see the protagonists working on their own art, but also in dialogue and in contact with other artists and their work. And we will see not only their world but also my world as director and cameraman.
The way I see light over the two years is part of the project. My camera is my eye and like a fourth level or storyline. It will augment, clarify, confuse, animate. The process of seeing an image and projecting it will also be questioned and seen in a new way. The audience in a cinema will be led to reflect on what is actually happening in the room and on the screen. Light plays. The old German word for cinema is: Lichtspielhaus : Light Play House. Tracing Light will be a mesmerising experience when it goes out in Autumn of 2024.

Festivals/awards

2024
67 DOK Leipzig

Director's comment

A film is time, sound and light. I have made a film about time, Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy working with Time and about sound, Touch the Sound – a Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie. Now comes Tracing Light. Light is everywhere. Without light there is no life. But light is much more; it is a language only visible when in communication with matter, which in turn, changes it. The information gained, transported by light, is how we understand the origin of the universe, the quantum world. Light is beautiful, magic – and totally incomprehensible. In contemplating light with physicists and artists, we are set in place in a universe much greater than ourselves.

After two years of research and filming, I am still fascinated. Sometimes, when listening to the physicists my head wants to explode, and when watching a thin bright white line reflected at the horizon of the sea my heart wants to jump. I don´t want to explain light with this film; one can only fail with such an agenda. I want us to consider and talk about the incredible magic of the world we are living in – its beauty and its mystery, which are, by far, greater than we are.

The three storylines are unique, each with its own focus; each looks and feels different. As different as the stories, are the characters – Joe and Ruth being very scientific in their approach, Julie with a great intuition and feel for the light around her and Johannes and Raimund with a deeply human approach and hint of humour. We will not only see the protagonists working on their own art, but also in dialogue and in contact with other artists and their work. And we will see not only their world but also my world as director and cameraman.

The way I see light over the two years is part of the project. My camera is my eye and like a fourth level or storyline. It will augment, clarify, confuse, animate. The process of seeing an image and projecting it will also be questioned and seen in a new way. The audience in a cinema will be led to reflect on what is actually happening in the room and on the screen. Light plays. The old German word for cinema is: Lichtspielhaus : Light Play House. Tracing Light will be a mesmerising experience when it goes out in Autumn of 2024.