# The Afterlight (2021 film)

The Afterlight is a 2021 British experimental supercut art film directed and assembled by Charlie Shackleton.

## Summary

The film, produced by Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing and Shackleton, and distributed by their studio Loop, consists of scenes of actors from old films who are no longer alive. The only copy of the Afterlight exists on a single 35mm film print, so that every time the film plays it will gradually erode until eventually it will diminish entirely and become a lost film. Featuring cinematography from Robbie Ryan and composed of films from the 1960s or before, the film is entirely in black and white.

## Films featured on The Afterlight

* The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
* In a Lonely Place (1950)
* Late Spring (1949)

## Reception

Jonathan Romney, writing for the British Film Institute, gave a positive review of the Afterlight, stating that "placed together, the images evoke a post-death existence, perfect, poetic and yet irreducibly desolate," and favourably compared the film to the 2010 supercut art installation The Clock. Adrian Hui of the Michigan Daily gave a more mixed review, praising its concept and "seamless [editing] between shots from different films as if they were the same film and pieces of dialogue from different films," but stated that as an experimental film, the Afterlight was "not experimental enough," arguing that the film was "not quite bold enough in pushing the boundaries" of its source material.

## Release

The Afterlight had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2021. As of June 2024, the film has screened publicly 56 times according to its official website:

### Screenings

* 15 October 2021: BFI London Film Festival, London, England
* 17 October 2021: BFI London Film Festival, London, England
* 6 November 2021: Cinecity: The Brighton Film Festival, Brighton, England
* 10 November 2021: Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds, England
* 25 November 2021: Cambridge Film Festival, Cambridge, England
* 4 March 2022: Campus Theatre, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States
* 25 March 2022: Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
* 31 March 2022: Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
* 4 May 2022: Prismatic Ground, Queens, New York City, United States
* 11 May 2022: Chicago Film Society, Chicago, Illinois, United States
* 14 May 2022: Ragtag Cinema, Columbia, Missouri, United States
* 16 May 2022: MDFF Selects, Toronto, Canada
* 19 May 2022: Visuals, Montréal, Canada
* 22 May 2022: Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
* 24 May 2022: Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, United States
* 26 May 2022: Bellwether Series, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States
* 31 May 2022: George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, United States
* 29 June 2022: BFI Southbank, London, England
* 30 June 2022: King Street Cinema, Ipswich, England
* 2 July 2022: Docs Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland
* 3 July 2022: Irish Film Institute, Dublin, Ireland
* 6 July 2022: The Electric, Birmingham, England
* 10 July 2022: Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, England
* 14 July 2022: HOME, Manchester, England
* 17 July 2022: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
* 22 July 2022: Watershed, Bristol, England
* 24 July 2022: Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
* 27 July 2022: Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland
* 29 July 2022: Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland
* 31 July 2022: Genesis Cinema, London, England
* 2 August 2022: Roxie Theater, San Francisco, California, United States
* 7 August 2022: Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
* 9 August 2022: Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
* 18 August 2022: QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia
* 20 August 2022: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
* 23 August 2022: Aero Theatre, Los Angeles, California, United States
* 17 September 2022: Camden International Film Festival, Camden, Maine, United States
* 7 October 2022: Refocus Film Festival, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
* 8 October 2022: Refocus Film Festival, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
* 15 October 2022: Widescreen Weekend, Bradford, England
* 21 October 2022: Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, New York, United States
* 24 October 2022: Yale Film Archive, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
* 1 November 2022: The Grand Illusion, Seattle, Washington, United States
* 25 November 2022: Austrian Film Museum, Vienna, Austria
* 6 February 2023: Warwick Student Cinema, Coventry, England
* 2 March 2023: Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, England
* 10 March 2023: DCA, Dundee, Scotland
* 29 March 2023: Forum Cinema, Hexham, England
* 6 April 2023: Lux, Nijmegen, Netherlands
* 10 June 2023: BFI Southbank, London, England
* 14 July 2023: Municipal Museum, Marienbad, Czech Republic
* 21 November 2023: The Regent, Christchurch, England
* 30 November 2023: The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford, England
* 10 April 2024: Kino Iluzjon, Warsaw, Poland
* 15 April 2024: Kino Iluzjon, Warsaw, Poland
* 12 May 2024: Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, England
* 15 November 2024: Romuva Cinema, Kaunas, Lithuania

## Loss

After its screening at the Hyde Park Picture House, the 35mm print disappeared in transit to Lisbon, where it was due to be screened at the Cinemateca Portuguesa. Shackleton initially declared the film lost in a post on X, but announced two weeks later that the print had arrived in Lisbon.