Right to Light is a film and photography project developed while in residence at the CENTQUATRE in Paris, France. The title riffs off the name of an old English law which gives the long-standing owner of a building with windows the right to forbid any construction that would deprive him or her the level of current illumination from sunlight. My approach to the film is not an hypothesis of light but to create impressions of it. The film is structured in seven parts, each chapter being like a short film that makes up a whole. The film opens without an image and a voice is heard of blind composer, Earl Howard, talking about what it is like to not "know" light. The second chapter playfully illustrates, like a science video, how there is no perception that exists outside our brain, and how light is the key to making this internal visual perception of the external world possible. The third chapter addresses the sensory and color distortion of fluorescent light and its impact on our physical and psychological comfort. The fourth chapter dips into the past to tell the story of Sun Ra, the Egyptian sun god, whom the Egyptians prayed for each night to ensure his return so the next day the sun would rise and life could continue. The fifth chapter is an interview with a particle physicist who talks about light, matter and the big bang. The sixth chapter is an interview with someone who has had a near death experience and finally the film ends with an experimental visual play between light and dark.
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