After seeing him mentioned on a Bishop’s Transcript held in Gloucestershire Archives, Dan goes for a walk in the woods in search of Daniel, a man buried in Nympsfield on the 31st of December 1719 and described on the document as ‘a black stranger’. Whilst walking, Dan talks directly to Daniel, speculating about the parallels between him and his namesake.
Georges Bataille once said that the terror humans felt upon seeing a body similar to their own, deprived of life and thus rendered to the status of an object, struck them with such fear that humanity collectively agreed to taboo the killing of humans in general. Dan Guthrie’s short film, an intimate, almost epistolary confession to a deceased man who shares the artist’s name as much as his wounds, reminds us that in times of acute awareness the alterity of others surpasses the challenging boundaries of the selves, thus permeating our spirit. That within our desire to improve human and structural relationships, a deep, dark spark of terror is hidden. The terror of perishing. (Emil Vasilache)
Dan Guthrie is an artist-filmmaker, film programmer and writer whose practice often explores representations and mis-representations of Black Britishness with an interest in examining how they manifest themselves in rural areas. Recent presentations of his work include Prismatic Ground, Berlinale Forum Expanded and the Independent Cinema Office and LUX’s Right of Way screening tour. He was an awardee of the 2022 Michael O’Pray Prize for new writing on the moving image and part of the programming team for the 18th edition of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival.