by Fern Silva 2010 13mins. Brazil/USA “O mother of waters! Great is your power, your strength, and your light...Let your greatness be the greatest wealth you dispense to me... surrounded by sweet melodies springing from your own self...” –prayer to Iemanjá Subtle, spectacular cinema in which cosmopolitan filmmaker Fern Silva creates a convincing, eclectic hotpot from various images. The fruits of life desiccate in front of our very eyes in a civilization out of step with the rhythm of the cosmos. –International Film Festival Rotterdam Fern Silva’s In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails (2010) suggests a future already arrived, merging the destruction with the creation of life as seen in the tiny turtles crawling their way to the sea, or heard in the crackling of a Geiger counter as a masked man sprays plants with pesticides. Though only 13 minutes, the film’s span is enormous. As revelers in Salvador, Bahia, parade through the streets, a gnat-sized Mercury passes across the surface of the sun, and men slowly make their way up the giant steps of an ancient temple; the film resides in a well of deep time, civilizational history swallowed by the life of the planet. –Genevieve Yue
