Until the Light Takes Us

The documentary describes a music circle that appeared in Norway at the start of the nineties. A small group of young people built the genre called black metal; they made their recordings deliberately at poor sound quality, ran their own record shop and built a circle closed to outsiders. Then the events began: churches were burned and a murder was committed. The press described it as devil worship. The documentary asks whether that account is true and listens to what the circle says itself. Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell direct. The documentary dates from 2008. The directors moved to Norway and filmed there over years; the relationship of trust was built that way. One of its main witnesses gives his interview in prison and presents his own account of the events; the documentary passes it on without objection. That is what was most criticised; while placing the violence in context the film barely mentions the victims. The real question it builds is how meaning was lost; the participants say what they did was misunderstood and the film puts that claim forward. The visual manner is calm and slow, deliberately at odds with the hardness of the music. How the art world and the music market later used this image is inside the narrative too. Who it is for: people who watch music subcultures and contested documentary. Who it is not for: the narrative is one sided, the victims get no room, and the subject is uncomfortable.