s. f. [lat. lūx lūcis, ant louk, armeno loys, gotico liuhath, ted. Licht,]. 1. a. Physical entity responsible for the excitation in the eye that produces visual sensations.
Since its origins, humankind has sought to understand, represent, and celebrate light in its many forms. From cave paintings to the most sophisticated contemporary artistic explorations, light has imposed itself as a fundamental element of human visual and spiritual experience, as well as a metaphor for the divine, for knowledge, for life.
This short film arises from the desire to investigate the primordial and visceral relationship between light and darkness, between the visible and the invisible, between birth and death. It is in the continuous alternation of these complementary opposites that the perception of time and space takes shape, and with it the very meaning of existence.
The work is intended as a homage to the birth of cinema, to the magic of analog projection that transforms sequences of still images into emotions. Light, understood as a generative principle, is here celebrated in its purest dimension. Beginning with an archetypal representation, it then moves toward a reality where light becomes living matter, transparent energy. Light as the possibility of being, and darkness—darkness as the refuge of memory.
The short film takes shape as a celebration of light, a journey into the discovery of its essence and of its role as the very soul of cinematic projection. For this reason, the work will be shot entirely on Super 8 and 16mm film, employing these traditional formats not only as recording media but as instruments that capture and transmit light itself, imprinting it onto celluloid before returning it to the audience in the theater.
Visually, the structure of the film will follow the birth and development of the moving image, juxtaposing evocative visions with a suggestive voice-over. The journey will begin with black-and-white animations, created in-camera frame by frame, and will culminate in a totalizing representation of light that escapes the boundaries of the frame and the limits of the camera. While the first part of the film will focus on a primarily aesthetic proposition—where frame composition and formal essentiality serve as the foundation of the images—the second part will take on a strongly experimental approach, characterized by predominantly abstract footage. In this section, the film draws on practices such as those of Paolo Gioli, manipulating light through the shutter in expressive ways, or Jim Davis, with caustic plays of light dancing in rhythm with music.
Another fundamental aspect will be the minimization of digital post-production. The entire process will take place in the studio, where surreal yet classically inspired environments will be reconstructed, linked to the dimensions of dream and memory. Everything seen in the final edit will have been produced directly in front of the camera. Visual tricks and animations will be the result of manual, artisanal work carried out during shooting. Among the non-digital techniques employed, stop motion and in-camera collage stand out.
Stop motion, or frame-by-frame animation, involves the meticulous manipulation of the subject, photographed one frame at a time, thus creating the illusion of movement. Often relying on miniature sets and forced perspectives, this technique constructs expanded and distorted spaces, where reality appears to elude physical logic. When associated with the element of light, such animation endows it with a true soul—not only granting total control over movements and variations of light but also imbuing luminous transformations with intentionality and organic character, essential to the narrative development of the work.
Equally central will be the technique of in-camera collage, which combines the use of masks in front of the lens with multiple exposures. This process becomes crucial in the section of the film where subjects appear suspended in the void, as if enveloped in a dark magma. By alternately covering and exposing different portions of the film strip, the impression is created of multiple visual realities coexisting within the same frame—offering the spectator a vision that is at once coherent and disorienting.
The play of light, finally, will serve to build a dimension where darkness conceals and light reveals, a world in which the boundary between reality and vision remains suspended. Light thus becomes an organ that unveils existence: what is not illuminated ceases to be, remaining in shadow, in the ambiguity of being. Through an essential yet evocative aesthetic, the short film aspires to be an immersive, sensorial experience, capable of engaging the viewer in a meditation on meaning itself.