Elegy in Light

Synopsis

Elegy in Light, shot on super 8mm film at the funeral of Catholicos Vazgen I, Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians, depicts an ancient and rarely seen rite of the Armenian Church with the music of monastic ritual chant and minimalist sound design: an ethnographic art film described by one viewer as "a psychedelic trip into medieval times." The film is an impressionistic meditation on death, life and the fragmentary way we remember the past. The medium of 8mm film, with its unique visual characteristics, becomes a metaphor for memory and for the soul itself; a cinematic memorial made from the substances of time and light.