The Darkness of Day
Top 2 Billed Cast
Voice
Voice
The Darkness of Day
HomePage
Overview
The Darkness of Day is a haunting meditation on suicide. It is comprised entirely of found 16mm footage that had been discarded. The sadness, the isolation, and the desire to escape are recorded on film in various contexts. Voice-over readings from the journal kept by a brother of the filmmaker’s friend who committed suicide in 1990 intermix with a range of compelling stories, from the poignant double suicide of an elderly American couple to a Japanese teenager who jumped into a volcano, spawning over a thousand imitations. While this is a serious exploration of a cultural taboo, its lyrical qualities invite the viewer to approach the subject with understanding and compassion.
Release Date
2009-11-19
Average
6.7
Rating:
3.4 startsTagline
Genres
Languages:
EnglishKeywords
Similar Movies

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(fr)
A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Land Without Bread(es)
An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory(fr)
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Weiss ist die Farbe der Verlierer(de)
Short film against the oppression of women. At first, differences in education are presented and then how the relationship between women and men looks like in the professional world.

Night and Fog(fr)
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Rocky Jumped a Park Bench(en)
A location tour of the Rocky filming locations in Philadelphia.

Arabian Coffee(es)
'Coffea arábiga' was sponsored as a propaganda documentary to show how to sow coffee around Havana. In fact, Guillén Landrián made a film critical of Castro, exhibited but banned as soon as the coffee plan collapsed.

Wigstock: The Movie(en)
The original documentary on the Wigstock festival, back in the day when it was a much smaller affair in Thompkins Square Park. A full day of peace, love, and wigs…

The Presence III(hu)
Two rabbis show the ruins of an abandoned synagogue to a group of primary school-age Jewish children, and stand by as the children dip bread in honey, drink wine, pray, and sing.

Cuenca(es)
A medium-length documentary commissioned by the Cuenca City Council. The documentary shows an honest, sincere, although sometimes mere tourist portrait, of the lands of Cuenca and its people, without artifice or imposture, with feeling and authenticity and at the same time with marked coldness.

The Hills of Qaytariyeh(fa)
A strange and mischievous documentary on an archeological site in the Qaytarieh hills in Tehran. This short narrates the story of the dead people who wished never to be found.

Hammer A.D. 2023(en)
A short documentary to celebrate Hammer Films' 89th anniversary. Discover how Hammer has shaped the horror genre, influenced culture, and what the future holds. Featuring insights from new CEO and Chairman John Gore, candid conversations with legendary Hammer Glamour icons Caroline Munro and Madeline Smith, plus contributions from writer and actor Mark Gatiss. Plus, voices of the horror community — from seasoned critics to influential content creators — discuss the indelible mark Hammer Films has made on the genre.

Until Further Notice(en)
With his industry on lockdown and no end in sight, Toronto chef Luke Donato tries to keep his culinary passion alive during the COVID-19 pandemic - even if it means teaching a group of misfits online.

Making Of Castelo(pt)
A two parts making of documentary, following José Augusto Silva and his film crew during the shooting of a university short film called Castelo.

Urgent ou à quoi bon exécuter des projets puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante(fr)
Gérard Courant applies the Lettrist editing techniques of Isidore Isou to footage of late 70's pop culture. Courant posits that his cinema offers an aggressive détournement to the French mainstream, reifying a Duchampian view of film: "I believe in impossible movies and works without meaning... I believe in the anti-movie. I believe in the non-movie. I believe in Urgent... My first full length movie that is so anti-everything that I sometimes wonder if it really does exist!"

Have We Met Before?(en)
Short docudrama exploring the history of sex in the homosexual community from the 1970s to the present day, and how the internet has changed the way gay men meet forever.

Round About Hollywood(en)
This short travelogue depicts snippets of locations in Hollywood, California, most of them as seen from the streets. Considerable time is taken showing the kinds of architecture of private homes. There are images of various important buildings, and a depiction of the Hollywood Bowl. Finally, there is a sequence revolving around the premiere of the film “Dirigible” (1931) at the famed Chinese Theatre.
Recommendations Movies
The D Train(en)
An old man reflects on his entire life. How quickly it all goes by.

Andalucia(fr)
Yacine is in his 30s, of Algerian origins, and has come to Paris looking for inner peace. A playful and poetic quest leads him via all kinds of strange encounters to an increasingly surrealist world and to Andalusia: a state of mind.
USA Holiday(en)
Madhuri was thrilled when her brother Jimmy accepted her invitation for a holiday in the USA. Jimmy boarded a Jet Airways flight and landed at Dulles International Airport, where Madhuri greeted him with open arms. Joining them were her friends Katrina and Priyanka, ready to make the trip unforgettable. Their adventure began at the breathtaking Niagara Falls, where the misty spray left them laughing and drenched. In New York, they marveled at the city lights and strolled across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Washington, D.C., offered monuments and history, while Las Vegas dazzled them with its neon nightlife. The journey ended with a serene hike through the stunning Valley of Fire State Park. Every moment was filled with laughter, pictures, and stories that turned into lifelong memories. As they sat under the stars on their final evening, Jimmy smiled and said, "Life is a journey, and this one has been incredible. But the journey never stops.

One Survivor Remembers(en)
Co-produced by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Research Institute, this Academy Award-winning documentary relates the harrowing story of Gerda Weissmann Klein and her journey of survival and remembering both before and after the war.

Popov Vodka Presents: An Evening with Doug Stanhope(en)
A compilation of three videos recorded during a private, invitation-only gig at The FunHouse in Bisbee, Arizona (where Stanhope lives, the audience is comprised of his close friends and neighbors) in 2016. Previously available as clips on YouTube, Stanhope released the three, 20-minute clips himself direct to streaming services, including Vimeo and Amazon, in late 2017.
Wake-up Juice(en)
A clown, pizza guy and flower girl walk into a hotel... to kill someone.

Momentum(en)
"Momentum is Belson's most serene and gentle film since Allures. This treatment of the sun as an almost dreamlike hallucinatory experience is both surprising and curiously realistic." -Gene Youngblood

Golden Blood: The Movie(th)
Sky, a mafia heir, and Sun, his strict bodyguard, fall in love, but must confront Sky's father and his expectations for their relationship.

Enya: The Video Collection(en)
Visual anthology of Celtic new age recording artist Enya. This collection contains 13 promotional music videos highlighting her career from her self-titled debut in 1987 to her 2000 album, A Day Without Rain.

Chile: Obstinate Memory(es)
After decades of fascist rule in Chile, Patricio Guzmán returns to his country to screen his documentary The Battle of Chile.
I Am Yours(en)
Logline is under wraps besides that it involves a stalking element in the vein of “Fatal Attraction.”

Mañana al Mar(es)
Imagine the beach of Barcelona in winter. A deserted place, sometimes tough-winded, on the edge of the vibrating city, an open plane to the sea. Waves are coming and going. As are these few citizens, maybe called upon by the waves. Or is it them, who render visible something untimely and eternal in this fluid flux and reflux?

Meathook Massacre(en)
3 young women encounter car trouble on the way to a Dragonsclaw concert during a rainstorm. They are forced to go seek help, where one by bloody one they are attacked by a masked maniac and hung on meathooks. Who will survive and what will be left of them?

Chantrapas(fr)
A filmmaker finds creative freedom more elusive than he imagined in this ironic comedy-drama. Tired of the state-appointed producers and censorship in his homeland, Soviet Georgia, Niko decides to move to France, only to find that he has merely traded one type of interference for another.
Spectator(en)
Spectator is one of the early masterpieces by Zwartjes. The film explicitly shows one of Frans Zwartjes’ main themes: the relationship between husband and wife. It is a relationship that is strongly marked by power and domination, sexual attraction and repulsion. It manifests itself in humiliation and abuse (such Pentimento), but also in cool eroticism or natural physicality. Zwartjes’ goal is not to explain or designate this relationship. Rather it is the subject that Zwartjes uses to describe his world. In an article on Zwartjes, filmmaker and student George Schouten compares Zwartjes to the Italian writer Alberto Moravia. For both, sex is their way of dealing with reality. It is the subject by which they define their world. And for Zwartjes, it is also the subject with which he can display and develop his cinematic talent. (eyefilm.nl)