<\/p>\n
A blind person is probably the least person you\u2019d expect to be a photographer. SHOT IN THE DARK is an intimate portrait of three successful artists who have one thing in common: visual impairment as a starting point for their visual explorations. This film poses fundamental questions about seeing and the imagination and enriches our understanding of perception and creation. We all close our eyes in sleep, the sighted and blind alike, and in our dreams \u2013 we see.<\/p>\n
It was a coincidence. I stumbled upon the work of these blind photographers while doing the prep work to the feature film about a blind teenager, CAMERA OBSCURA (Spain, 2011). I was the cameraman on the movie, and the director Maru Solores and I were deliberating on how blind people experience the world around them, whether or not they experienced light impressions or saw fantasy or dream images, and how we could convey such things using the language of our film camera. While researching, I found a catalog from the California Museum of Photography on the exhibition SIGHT UNSEEN, which featured the works of 15 blind artists.<\/p>\n
Some of the pictures left a strong, lasting impression on me. I found them extremely unusual, almost alien, and at the same time unpretentious and direct. They remained in my mind’s eye long after my research was completed, teasing and disturbing me. While on a film shoot in the USA, I decided to contact two of the artists and we ended up meeting in person. The visit lasted much longer than I had planned, for we immediately immersed ourselves in a stimulating conversation about questions such as: How do ideas form in our head? How do we create our pictures before we even snap the camera? What form do the images finally take on the photographic material; what surprises arise while taking the photos; what occasionally uncontrollable, independent dynamics are innate to the process? And what concepts and ideas can in turn be drawn from the finished pieces upon viewing? “I see my images with eyes as well,” contended Pete Eckert during this first visit, “just through the eyes of others.” The triad of “artist \u2013 artwork \u2013 viewer” shifts dizzyingly in the artistic endeavors of these blind visionaries.<\/p>\n
We remained in contact in the months that followed, and as I got to see more and more of their works it became clear to me: the mysteriousness of these pictures and the work methods of these artists spurn any quick answers. I ruminated time and again over how these blind maintained their desire, energy, and endurance to keep doing and developing their artwork over all the years despite all the physiological barriers. To push further and deeper instead of throwing down the towel at the intractability of their approach. On the contrary, they never stopped refining their individual intuition and technique. Is the fascination of their photography perhaps intrinsically based on the improbability of their work? The more discussions I had with the artists, the more I began to hope to discover something new, something previously unknown to me, about the creation of photographic images and about the phenomena of light. Is it perhaps, paradoxically, the very lack of light that even allows the true appreciation of the beauty and diversity of light, and above all engenders such an idiosyncratic and virtuosic utilization of it? And is the orchestration of light, for the blind artists, an enrapturing end in itself? To be able to function, do the limitations posed by blindness maneuver within an aesthetic enfranchisement far removed from the endemic laws of the business of art and\/or our daily receptive impressions and attenuations?<\/p>\n
“Because you can see, you don’t use your senses and your imagination to the full extent \u2013 you’re satisfied much too quickly,” Sonia Soberats once said to me during the film shoot. “The power of the imagination of the sighted lags behind their possibilities.” The focus of my curiosity began to turn ever more to this mysterious imaginative power, and the photographs themselves proved to be the richest conduit to the fantasy world of these artists. That is why, in the film, great focus is placed on the consideration of the pieces. My perception and imagination have been greatly opened and expanded by these encounters. As a colleague said to me after a test screening: “After this experience, I have the impression that these blind people see more than we do.<\/p>\n
\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Credits” _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]\n
“Footage
\nFilm-Materials
\nI see
\nThe photographer Pete Eckert standing at a crossing
\nI close my eyes
\nI try to understand space
\nI try to feel
\nKeeping my eyes closed
\nThat’s how it started for me
\nShot In The Dark”<\/p>\n
Bernd Euscher
\n(Bernd Euscher and Gesa Marten edited the film)<\/p>\n
WITH:<\/p>\n
Oliver Krisch<\/p>\n
Hashim Kirkland<\/p>\n
Steven Erra<\/p>\n
Rossanna Garcia<\/p>\n
Manuel Alejandro Velasquez<\/p>\n
Manuel Velasquez<\/p>\n
Desir\u00e9e Garcia<\/p>\n
Gayle Funke<\/p>\n
Lidia Moran<\/p>\n
Nakari Bracamonte<\/p>\n
Valerie Hall<\/p>\n
Christina Hall<\/p>\n
James Hall<\/p>\n
Jack Hall<\/p>\n
Amy M. Eckert<\/p>\n
The dogs Hunter<\/p>\n
and Colonel \u201eBunny\u201c Clancy<\/p>\n
David Royer<\/p>\n
PRODUCERS<\/p>\n
Kristina Konrad<\/p>\n
Christian Frosch<\/p>\n
Iin Co-Production with<\/p>\n
Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR<\/p>\n
In association with ARTE<\/p>\n
COMMISSIONING EDITOR<\/p>\n
Sabine Rollberg<\/p>\n
DIRECTED, SCRIPTED AND FILMED BY<\/p>\n
Frank Amann<\/p>\n
EDITED BY<\/p>\n
Bernd Euscher
\nGesa Marten, BFS<\/p>\n
MUSIC COMPOSED BY<\/p>\n
FM Einheit<\/p>\n
SOUND RECORDIST<\/p>\n
Shinya Kitamura<\/p>\n
SOUND POSTPRODUCTION<\/p>\n
Shinya Kitamura<\/p>\n
SOUND DESIGN<\/p>\n
Sebastian Tesch<\/p>\n
Shinya Kitamura<\/p>\n
FOLEY ARTIST<\/p>\n
Daniel Weis<\/p>\n
FOLEY RECORDIST<\/p>\n
Florian Holzner<\/p>\n
RE-RECORDING MIXER<\/p>\n
Martin Steyer<\/p>\n
SCRIPT CONSULTANT<\/p>\n
Olaf Winkler<\/p>\n
LINE PRODUCER<\/p>\n
Kristina Konrad<\/p>\n
VFX ARTIST<\/p>\n
Andreas Schellenberg<\/p>\n
COLORIST<\/p>\n
Natalia Maximova<\/p>\n
TITLES<\/p>\n
Susanne Beer<\/p>\n
SUBTITLES<\/p>\n
Ra\u00fal Zrapf<\/p>\n
Marielle Pohlmann<\/p>\n
TRANSLATION AND TRANSCRIPTION<\/p>\n
Bryan Abraham<\/p>\n
Hannah Bondy<\/p>\n
Mijal Bloch<\/p>\n
PRODUCTION CONSULTANTS<\/p>\n
Martin Roelly, Hupefilm COLOGNE<\/p>\n
Katrin Springer<\/p>\n
PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT<\/p>\n
Bernhard Rand<\/p>\n
POSTPRODUCTION PRODUCER<\/p>\n
Undine Simmang, cine plus Cologne GmbH<\/p>\n
ONLINE EDITOR<\/p>\n
Walter Just<\/p>\n
AVID SUPPORT<\/p>\n
Anke Trojan<\/p>\n
Daniel Scheimberg<\/p>\n
Zwi Zausch<\/p>\n
AUDIODESCRIPTION<\/p>\n
Deutsche H\u00f6rfilm Gemeinn\u00fctzige GmbH (DHG)<\/p>\n
CREW CALIFORNIA<\/p>\n
UNIT PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT<\/p>\n
Boris Schaarschmidt<\/p>\n
UNDERWATER-CAMERA<\/p>\n
Ron Moore (Dive Catalina)<\/p>\n
HIGH SPEED OPERATOR<\/p>\n
Tyler Whitbread<\/p>\n
SOUND RECORDIST FOR TRAILER<\/p>\n
Martin Ehleben<\/p>\n
CREW NEW YORK CITY<\/p>\n
SERVICEPRODUCER<\/p>\n
Sabine Schenk, Sabine Schenk Productions<\/p>\n
LOCATIONSCOUT AND ADDITIONAL SOUND-RECORDING<\/p>\n
Diego Reiwald<\/p>\n
DRIVER<\/p>\n
Rob Plonskier<\/p>\n
PRODUCTION SERVICES AND FACILITIES<\/p>\n
Cameras Canon C300 and C500<\/p>\n
Ludwig Camera Rentals Cologne<\/p>\n
See You Rent<\/p>\n
A B Sea Cameras L.A.<\/p>\n
Hollywood Special Ops LLC<\/p>\n
James Rodney Stolz<\/p>\n
INSURANCE<\/p>\n
Caninenberg & Schouten GmbH<\/p>\n
CAR RENTALS<\/p>\n
medias Reiseservice<\/p>\n
MUSIC<\/p>\n
Selected Tracks composed and performed by FM Einheit<\/p>\n
Additional Guitars: Caspar Br\u00f6tzmann<\/p>\n
E Lucevan Le Stelle (from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini)
\nInterpreted by Enrico Caruso (1904)<\/p>\n
Ohime! Morir me sento (from Aida BY Giuseppe Verdi)
\nWiener Singverein (1959)<\/p>\n
Marta (by Moises Sim\u00f3ns)
\nInterpreted by Perez Prado (1958)<\/p>\n
El Manisero (Traditional)
\ninterpreted by Don Azpiazu (1930)<\/p>\n
Fantasy in Space (by Otto Luening)
\ncourtesy of Anthology of Recorded Music, INC.
\nDBA New World Records (1952)<\/p>\n
Nessun Dorma (from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini)
\nInterpreted by Alessandro Valente (1927)<\/p>\n
PROLOGUE QUOTATION FROM<\/p>\n
The Labyrinth of Night – A Personal Essay
\nby Steven Erra<\/p>\n
SCRIPT FUNDING<\/p>\n
German Federal Film-Board FFA<\/p>\n
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT FUNDING<\/p>\n
Gerd Ruge Stipendium<\/p>\n
THE PROJECT WAS PRESENTED AT<\/p>\n
DOK Leipzig Co-Production Meeting<\/p>\n
DOK.Forum Munich<\/p>\n
PRODUCTION FUNDING<\/p>\n
Federal Government Commissioner For Culture And The Media BKM<\/p>\n
Film- und Medienstiftung NRW<\/p>\n
\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANATOMY OF THE FILM SYNOPSIS A blind person is probably the least person you\u2019d expect to be a photographer. SHOT IN THE DARK is an intimate portrait of three successful artists who have one thing in common: visual impairment as a starting point for their visual explorations. This film poses fundamental questions about seeing… Continue Reading ABOUT<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-340","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark-film.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}