Dusk of the Lights

Two hands over a light.

That moment in the middle of a film when you completely zone out.

Theory of Light is a documentary centred on the climate emergency through a climate justice lens. It's committed to uplifting the perspectives of communities already being impacted by climate change and representing those who feel excluded from the climate movement.

Light is a fascinating phenomenon. Without light, there would be no cinema, no film – and no life. So light is at the origin of everything, and yet it remains invisible to the eye until it hits matter. This moment is – quite literally – the starting point of Thomas Riedelsheimer’s latest work, for the springtime spectacle of rainbow shreds in the cinematographer and documentary filmmaker’s flat became the starting point of a search for the origin of the images we form of this world. For this quest he dived deep into two spheres that seem to follow different laws but always strive to fathom the magical: physics and art.

Backed by an echoed horn music, the light passes through a magnifying glass. On the walls, they portrait pans being held on top of a stove.

An exciting video journey through the world of time-lapse photography by one of the founders of the science of photobiology, Dr. John Nash Ott. Do fluorescent lights cause cancer and childhood learning and behavior disorders? Can long-term exposure to low-level radiation as from TV sets, computers, fluorescent lights, and similar devices harm you? Does living behind window glass and with glasses covering our eyes over years affect our health? Is natural sunlight and trace ultra-violet radiation really harmful? Or is it necessary and beneficial? How do cells, plants, and animals respond to constant exposure to different light color frequencies? These and similar questions were the subjects of Dr. Ott's pioneering investigations in the field of photobiology, using the methods of time-lapse photography.

Five Kiwis take on a paragliding adventure in Tanzania, with the ultimate aim to fly from the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.

A computer generated fern follows a modular synthesizer soundtrack.

A thinking about light and how it surrounds our lives.

From the light that falls on the backyard of his house on the day of the equinox without shadow in Quito, and inspired by the "Theory of colors" of Goethe, the director takes us to several cities in America to reflect on the influence that the light has in the understanding of our surroundings.