Darkness as material - PhD project - 2023
(2023)
author(s): Mia Engberg
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
The doctoral project Darkness as Material, examines darkness as material and its relationship to cinematic storytelling. The study addresses different kinds of darkness: darkness in the image, darkness in the cinema theatre, darkness in the spectator where films are received and the darkness in the filmmaker, where the world is reflected and ideas are born. The project is inspired by Marguerite Duras' idea to kill cinema, and it explores film's potential to approach the place she described as 'the dark room, where we are deaf and blind and passion is possible'.
The Visual Silence
(2020)
author(s): Mia Engberg
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
The Visual Silence explores a cinematic aesthetic that approaches silence and darkness and challenges the voyeuristic tradition of cinema. It is a cinematic form that is situated in the gap between what is projected and what is perceived, between the impression of the ear and that of the eye. The Visual Silence examines the possibility of new perspectives through the deconstruction of the image and also through a critical examination of patriarchal, excluding and exhausting methods in the traditions of filmmaking. The research project resulted in the feature film Lucky One that premiered 2019.
