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THE LIGHT
TAKES US. BARD ”FAUST” EITHUN
68
Audrey, you already made your directing debut by co-producing the movie
“A Sign from God”, could you tell me a bit about that?
Hmm, that was a romantic comedy. I was basically forced into an acting role
in that as well, plus I was the production manager. That production got off to
a rocky start. I remember the first day of shooting, I got up at some ungodly
hour, and before I’d even had coffee I got a call from the assistant director. I was
expecting an update but I wasn’t prepared for the update to be that the entire
principle cast: the director, two sound guys and the D.P. had been in a car crash
and were in an ambulance on the way to the emergency room. Everyone was
fine (well one of the sound guys had actually wandered off with a concussion
and when I arrived at the scene the police were talking to the craft services guy,
who was somehow the most responsible person still there), but that’s just budget
filmmaking. I’m amazed we finished that one. But I think with film you’re always
amazed, they are so hard to make.
or the “terrorist chic” of Baader Meinhof, or even the countercultural music and
ideology elements of the American hippie music and nonviolence movement.
But then, the differences are obvious, so the film deals with that, but it’s equally
about people and ideas. I think the film and the characters are going to surprise
a lot of people. You absolutely will get the history of Norwegian Black Metal from
the mouths of the people that created it, but there’s a lot more to it than that. We
aren’t journalists, and journalism doesn’t interest either of us.
Is it true that you spent several months just living there, becoming good
friends with everyone, before you actually started working on the movie?
That’s true. Getting the vibe of Norway, getting to know the people, it was
important that we get to know the people we were documenting before we
started filming. We didn’t want to get a superficial snapshot, that didn’t interest
us. And besides, one of the things that appealed to us about the project was
Norway itself. Getting a chance to experience what it was like to live in Norway
wasn’t only necessary for the film; it was a fringe benefit for us. We wanted
to live in Europe for a while; we also shot in Stockholm and Milan. It was very
isolating at times, but it was also nice to have a singular purpose and not to
have day jobs to contend with. So, we became friends with most of them on
some level: Gylve (“Fenriz” of Darkthrone) for example, we clicked with him
immediately; Aaron can talk music ‘til the sun comes up. We’re friends with a lot
of the other musicians as well: Infernus from Gorgoroth, Garm from Ulver and
Hellhammer from Mayhem in particular. We have a pretty good relationship with
everyone in the scene for the most part.
Do you think he is aware of himself still being a role model, and what do
you personally think about him turning to apparently extreme political and
religious ideologies?
I’m not sure if he really is. But to the extent that he is, I don’t think that he wants
to be. I mean, he no longer releases music, he doesn’t give interviews at all
anymore; he doesn’t release statements or court any kind of public attention
at all that I’m aware of. I think he just wants to fade from public view and live
his life when he’s released. I’d be shocked if he did otherwise. So, what’s
really important is that the film is told from the perspective of the musicians
themselves, there’s no narration and there are no experts. And while the notion
of objectivity is a perverse fallacy, we abstain from commenting on the subjects
of the film. We’re not overly political in our personal lives, we do think the world
is broken in many ways and we choose to engage the world in conversation
with media, rather than attend rallies or try to enact change through activism or
politics. Objectivity though, it’s a false idea. There’s no such thing. Perhaps a
robot could be objective, but even in our science fiction you see again and again
that as robots become more human, they lose their capacity for objectivity. So,
that was never of any particular concern to us. What was important was that we
get the right people to tell the story. And that obviously means the originators.
But of course our ideas are still present. They’re there in the juxtapositions, in the
people we chose, in the stories they tell. We weave a few timelines and stories;
the overlap is generally where the thematic elements are explored.
UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US: DOCUMENTARY: USA 2008: DIRECTED BY AUDREY EWELL & AARON AITES
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/BLACKMETALMOVIE