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"If you find a way to dance with people, to dance with life, nothing wrong can happen to you." --Hugues de Montalembert
Poetic and profound, BLACK SUN examines, through
the example of French author Hugues de Montalembert,
what goes through the mind of an artist when he is
suddenly and tragically robbed of his most vital sense,
vision. Before de Montalembert was attacked in his New
York apartment, he couldn't have imagined he would lose
his sight forever. Indeed, with his future as a painter and
filmmaker over, de Montalembert could have given up hope
- he tells of other friends who committed suicide when
confronted with their own demons. Instead, de
Montalembert refused to feel sorry for himself, adjusting to
his new reality through determination, hard work and
optimism. After over a year of therapy, he began traveling
alone to places like Bali and India in search of life
experiences he could chronicle in his books.
The vivid words that form the foundation of this film are
enhanced by filmmaker Gary Tarn through his own
pulsating score, as well as a variety of evocative images
filmed and photographed in New York, Maine, Paris,
London, India (Ladakh, Rishikesh, Rajasthan) and Iceland.
These images are sometimes enhanced, blurred or
distorted to approximate the visions that de Montalembert
"sees" as a blind person. The film also contains computer-
animation scenes that help explain de Montalembert's
mechanical abilities to navigate without sight and recognize
danger or obstacles through what he calls "facial vision."
ABOUT THE SUBJECT: Hugues de Montalembert has
become a successful author since being blinded, writing
two books (he's working on a third) including Eclipse, which was recently reissued and is available through Amazon.com. He currently lives in Paris while continuing to travel
extensively.
BLACK SUN won the 2006 Special Jury Prize for
Documentaries at the 2006 Sarasota Film Festival, as well
as the Jury Award for Documentaries at the 2006 Newport
International Film Festival. It was also nominated as Best
British Documentary at the 2005 British Independent Film
Awards.
Black Sun was edited, produced, directed and scored by
Gary Tarn, a London-based musician and filmmaker. Tarn,
who began his career as a composer for film and television,
met de Montalembert in 1999, and the two agreed to
collaborate on this film project. Black Sun is Tarn's first
feature-length film.
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