Until the Light Takes Us
Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell, 2009
Catalog No.: FTF-009
Length: 93 minutes
Until The Light Takes Us tells the story of black metal. Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in the mid-nineties when a rash of suicides, murders, and church burnings accompanied the explosive artistic growth and output of a music scene that would forever redefine what heavy metal is and what it stands for to other musicians, artists and music fans world-wide. Until The Light Takes Us goes behind the highly sensationalized media reports of "Satanists running amok in Europe" to examine the complex and largely misunderstood principles and beliefs that led to this rebellion against both Christianity and modern culture.
To capture this on film, directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell moved to Norway and lived with the musicians for several years, building relationships that allowed them to create a surprisingly intimate portrait of this violent, but ultimately misunderstood, movement. The result is a poignant, moving story that’s as much about the idea that reality is composed of whatever the most people believe, regardless of what’s actually true, as it is about a music scene that blazed a path of murder and arson across the northern sky.
Featuring Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell, Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes, Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg, Kjetil “Frost” Haraldstad, Olve “Abbath” Eikemo, Harald “Demonaz” Nævdal, Bjarne Melgaard and Harmony Korine
Featuring Music From Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Ulver, Thorns, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Boards of Canada, Black Dice, Sunn 0))), Múm and Lesser
PURCHASE
DVD | BLU-RAY
WATCH THE FILM
PRESS
“Absorbing”
– New York Times (Critic’s Pick)
“Morbidly Fascinating”
– Variety
"Richly compelling and artfully shot."
– LA Weekly (Critic's Pick)
"Crafty and Compelling"
– Salon.com
“Gripping”
– Boston Phoenix
“Slowly the film sharpens to a point, a dagger-sharp one. Not many documentaries are as engrossing or can boast such a dramatic climax.”
– New York Post
“An expertly made, gripping, disturbing and fascinating film… shows how even the most ferocious underground movement can be corrupted and commodified by the media”
– Empire Magazine
“My favorite kind of documentary. Incredibly effective.”
– Ain't it Cool News
“Both enlightening and entertaining.”
– Decibel Magazine
“An appreciation for Black Metal is not a requisite for enjoying this film since the questions being raised reach beyond music and into the very heart of truth.”
– The Winnipeg Weekly Journal