Public Lighting

Following last years’ moving and magnificent ‘Imitations of Life’, Canadian essay filmmaker Hoolboom is back with another lyrically melancholy take on solitude and belonging, on the ways of photographic and filmic images, and their implications for memory and our sense of mortality. Chaptered around different voices and approaches to narrative, it’s a delicate but wide-ranging work, taking in considerations of Philip Glass and Madonna, reflections on child modelling and China, HIV and TV. A scrapbook of charged being, it captures the light in friendships, cities and pictures, while not ignoring the shadows that lengthen towards loss. A deeply humane, ultimately celebratory work.