The Afterlight (2021 film)

{{Short description|2021 British art film by Charlie Shackleton}}

{{Infobox film

| name = The Afterlight

| image =

| caption =

| director = Charlie Shackleton

| producer = Catherine Bray
Anthony Ing
Charlie Shackleton

| cinematography = Robbie Ryan

| music = Jeremy Warmsley

| editing = Charlie Shackleton

| studio = Loop

| released = {{Film date|df=y|2021|10|15|BFI London Film Festival}}

| runtime = 82 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language =

}}

File:Charlie Shackleton.jpg

The Afterlight is a 2021 British experimental supercut art film directed and assembled by Charlie Shackleton.{{cite web|url=https://library.yale.edu/event/film-screening-afterlight|title=Film Screening: The Afterlight|work=Yale Library|publisher=Yale University|access-date=19 December 2022}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.theflickeringknight.com/blog/ghosts-in-the-machine-charlie-shackletons-afterlight-project |title=Ghosts in the Machine: Charlie Shackleton's Afterlight Project — The Flickering Knight |access-date=19 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219222616/https://www.theflickeringknight.com/blog/ghosts-in-the-machine-charlie-shackletons-afterlight-project |url-status=live }}

Summary

The film, produced by Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing and Shackleton, and distributed by their studio Loop,{{Cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/727784642 |title=Official trailer on Vimeo |access-date=19 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219220629/https://vimeo.com/727784642 |url-status=live }} consists of scenes of actors from old films who are no longer alive.{{cite news|url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/single-print-feature-the-afterlight-sets-self-distributed-uk-ireland-cinema-tour-exclusive/5170342.article|last=Dalton|first=Ben|date=11 May 2022|title=Single print feature 'The Afterlight' sets self-distributed UK-Ireland cinema tour (exclusive)|work=Screen Daily|access-date=19 December 2022|archive-date=9 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609004724/https://www.screendaily.com/news/single-print-feature-the-afterlight-sets-self-distributed-uk-ireland-cinema-tour-exclusive/5170342.article|url-status=live}} The only copy of the Afterlight exists on a single 35mm film print,{{Cite web |url=https://wexarts.org/film-video/afterlight |title=Wexner Center for the Arts |access-date=19 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219222355/https://wexarts.org/film-video/afterlight |url-status=live }} so that every time the film plays it will gradually erode until eventually it will diminish entirely and become a lost film.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/oct/07/film-lost-netflix-the-afterlight-london-film-fesitval-digital-media|last=Shackleton|first=Charlie|date=7 October 2021|title=I made a film that's designed to be lost – and that's not so different from Netflix|work=The Guardian|access-date=19 December 2022}} Featuring cinematography from Robbie Ryan and composed of films from the 1960s or before,[https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/the-afterlight-8-23-22/ American Cinematheque]{{Cite web |url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2022/festival-reports/living-ghosts-at-the-melbourne-international-film-festival/ |title=Living Ghosts at the Melbourne International Film Festival – Senses of Cinema |access-date=19 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219231506/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2022/festival-reports/living-ghosts-at-the-melbourne-international-film-festival/ |url-status=live }} the film is entirely in black and white.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-afterlight-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmda0mdi4|title=The Afterlight|work=British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)|access-date=19 December 2022}}

Films featured on ''The Afterlight''

The Asphalt Jungle (1950){{Cite web |url=https://film-cred.com/the-afterlight-charlie-shackleton-film-preservation/ |title=The Life and Death of 'The Afterlight' - Film Cred |access-date=19 February 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219222148/https://film-cred.com/the-afterlight-charlie-shackleton-film-preservation/ |url-status=live }}
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Late Spring (1949)

Reception

Jonathan Romney, writing for the British Film Institute, gave a positive review of the Afterlight, stating that "placed together, the images evoke a post-death existence, perfect, poetic and yet irreducibly desolate," and favourably compared the film to the 2010 supercut art installation The Clock.{{cite news|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/afterlight-film-immortals-en-route-oblivion|last=Romney|first=Jonathan|date=1 July 2022|title=The Afterlight: a film of immortals en route to oblivion|work=British Film Institute|access-date=19 December 2022}} Adrian Hui of the Michigan Daily gave a more mixed review, praising its concept and "seamless [editing] between shots from different films as if they were the same film and pieces of dialogue from different films," but stated that as an experimental film, the Afterlight was "not experimental enough," arguing that the film was "not quite bold enough in pushing the boundaries" of its source material.{{cite news|url=https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/film/ann-arbor-film-festival-2022-the-afterlight-is-an-alluring-tribute-to-a-bygone-era-of-cinema/|last=Hui|first=Adrians|date=28 March 2022|title=Ann Arbor Film Festival 2022: 'The Afterlight' is an alluring tribute to a bygone era of cinema|work=The Michigan Daily|access-date=24 December 2022|archive-date=24 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224004216/https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/film/ann-arbor-film-festival-2022-the-afterlight-is-an-alluring-tribute-to-a-bygone-era-of-cinema/|url-status=live}}

Release

The Afterlight had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2021. {{As of|June 2024}}, the film has screened publicly 56 times according to its official website:

= Screenings =

15 October 2021: BFI London Film Festival, London, England
17 October 2021: BFI London Film Festival, London, England
6 November 2021: Cinecity: The Brighton Film Festival, Brighton, England
10 November 2021: Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds, England
25 November 2021: Cambridge Film Festival, Cambridge, England
4 March 2022: Campus Theatre, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States
25 March 2022: Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
31 March 2022: Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
4 May 2022: Prismatic Ground, Queens, New York City, United States
11 May 2022: Chicago Film Society, Chicago, Illinois, United States
14 May 2022: Ragtag Cinema, Columbia, Missouri, United States
16 May 2022: MDFF Selects, Toronto, Canada
19 May 2022: Visuals, Montréal, Canada
22 May 2022: Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
24 May 2022: Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, United States
26 May 2022: Bellwether Series, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States
31 May 2022: George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, United States
29 June 2022: BFI Southbank, London, England
30 June 2022: King Street Cinema, Ipswich, England
2 July 2022: Docs Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland
3 July 2022: Irish Film Institute, Dublin, Ireland
6 July 2022: The Electric, Birmingham, England
10 July 2022: Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, England
14 July 2022: HOME, Manchester, England
17 July 2022: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
22 July 2022: Watershed, Bristol, England
24 July 2022: Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
27 July 2022: Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland
29 July 2022: Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland
31 July 2022: Genesis Cinema, London, England
2 August 2022: Roxie Theater, San Francisco, California, United States
7 August 2022: Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
9 August 2022: Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
18 August 2022: QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia
20 August 2022: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
23 August 2022: Aero Theatre, Los Angeles, California, United States
17 September 2022: Camden International Film Festival, Camden, Maine, United States
7 October 2022: Refocus Film Festival, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
8 October 2022: Refocus Film Festival, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
15 October 2022: Widescreen Weekend, Bradford, England
21 October 2022: Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, New York, United States
24 October 2022: Yale Film Archive, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
1 November 2022: The Grand Illusion, Seattle, Washington, United States
25 November 2022: Austrian Film Museum, Vienna, Austria
6 February 2023: Warwick Student Cinema, Coventry, England
2 March 2023: Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, England
10 March 2023: DCA, Dundee, Scotland
29 March 2023: Forum Cinema, Hexham, England
6 April 2023: Lux, Nijmegen, Netherlands
10 June 2023: BFI Southbank, London, England
14 July 2023: Municipal Museum, Marienbad, Czech Republic
21 November 2023: The Regent, Christchurch, England
30 November 2023: The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford, England
10 April 2024: Kino Iluzjon, Warsaw, Poland
15 April 2024: Kino Iluzjon, Warsaw, Poland
12 May 2024: Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, England
15 November 2024: Romuva Cinema, Kaunas, Lithuania

Loss

After its screening at the Hyde Park Picture House, the 35mm print disappeared in transit to Lisbon, where it was due to be screened at the Cinemateca Portuguesa.{{cite web|url=https://theafterlight.xyz/|title=The Afterlight|access-date=June 14, 2024|archive-date=April 26, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240426155823/https://theafterlight.xyz/|url-status=live}} Shackleton initially declared the film lost in a post on X,{{cite tweet|user=charlieshack|number=1801524191650255309|date=June 14, 2024|title=Was holding off on announcing this in case it suddenly turned up, but: The Afterlight is now a lost film, having disappeared in transit from Leeds to Lisbon last month.|link=no|access-date=June 14, 2024}} but announced two weeks later that the print had arrived in Lisbon.{{cite tweet|user=charlieshack|number=1806234040053236061|date=June 27, 2024|title=Should have held off longer... look what just showed up in Lisbon six weeks late 🤦‍♂️.|link=no|access-date=June 14, 2024}}