Tracing Light - Die Magie des Lichts (Tracing Light)
U.K./Germany 2024

Opening 16 Jan 2025

Directed by: Thomas Riedelsheimer
Writing credits:

Thomas Riedelsheimer investigates “light” both in the world of physics and in the world of art. He takes us to the Hebrides Islands in Scotland, to the Extreme Light Group and the Advanced Research Center at the University of Glasgow, and then to the Max-Planck-Institut in Erlangen, Germany. He shows us light from the world of physics and the world of art, interviewing scientists and international artists such as Ruth Jarman, Joe Gerhardt, Julie Brook, Johannes Brunner, and Raimund Ritz. We see light in conjunction with objects, but we never see light itself. Still, the eye is like a camera. We learn about photons (particles/waves) which measure the intensity of light. We begin to look at light in a new and different way. “Light realizes that you are watching and changes the trip of light through your brain.” “We cannot exist without sun, and it is extraordinary that it comes up every day.”

Director Riedelsheimer has given us films about Time (Rivers and Tides, 2001) and Sound (Touch the Sound, 2004). Now he shares information about Light. We go through the countryside seeing houses, fireplaces, dogs, etc., all dependent on light. We see beautiful works of art inspired by light. Tracing Light is a soft quiet explanation, supported by soft, quiet music, which almost closes our eyes sending us towards sleep, which would be too bad, because we must not miss any of the beautiful details of an important part of our world: Light. To quote film expert Luc Carolin Ziemann, “Without light there would be no cinema, no film, no life.” Tracing Light premiered at the 2024 DOK Leipzig, the annual documentary film festival, where it was the opening film. (Becky Tan)