The Afterlight

There are no digital copies of The Afterlight, so when the print deteriorates past the point of being projectible, the film will cease to exist. The work serves as a meditation on cultural memory and testament to both film’s stability (a properly stored print can last for over a hundred years) and fragility (a print can be damaged each time it is projected). At the same time, the project also offers a canny warning about the false permanency of digital media. Many assume that films available on digital platforms and streaming services will be so indefinitely—but as any Netflix subscriber knows, they can disappear as quickly as a legal agreement expires, or even if a file is corrupted.

As Shackleton notes in a recent Guardian interview, there’s an ephemeral beauty to the physical aspect of film that we shouldn’t forget. “In the case of The Afterlight,” he explains, “the fragile equation at the heart of film culture is laid bare. The scratches and blemishes that accumulate on the print will irrevocably alter the film itself, but they’ll also stand in for something larger: the projection during which they occurred, and the audience there to witness it. In the process, the act of viewership itself will be made material, in an era when it’s usually anything but.” (82 mins., 35mm)

Shackleton is a nonfiction filmmaker whose films have screened at festivals and alternative venues around the world. Stay after the screening for a Q&A with the director!