"In the absence of light, darkness prevails"
2010 / 13 mins 
Brazil / USA

"Subtle, spectacular cinema in which cosmopolitan filmmaker Fern Silva creates a convincing,
eclectic hotpot from various images. The fruits of life desiccate in front of our very eyes in a
civilisation out of step with the rhythm of the cosmos." -International Film Festival Rotterdam


Fern Silva (b. 1982, Hartford, CT) has created a body of film, video, and projection work that has
been screened and performed at various festivals, galleries, museums and cinematheques including the
Rotterdam, New York, Ann Arbor, and Images Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, Wexner Center for
the Arts, San Francisco Cinematheque, Roulette Gallery, LAXART, White Box Gallery and MOMA P.S.1. His
work emerges out of travel, documenting movement through the world as a conduit into the realms of the
personal and ephemeral, and the effects of geography, climate and environment on social relations,
communication, and the metaphysical. He's drawn to subjects that defy a national identity or obscurity
through myth, folklore, mysticism, or particular rituals. Rather than focusing on one aspect, he moves
through moments to show commonality amongst beings and structures. In an effort to avoid conventional
aspects of documentary, he reinforces imagination through embracing suggestions of possible narratives.
Driven by curiosity and memory, his work reflects the tensions between mystification of the observational
and experiential and the realization of moments in time as a form of unification. He was listed as one of
the top 25 filmmakers for the 21st century in Film Comment magazine’s avant-garde filmmakers poll and is
the recipient of the Gus Van Sant Award from the 49th Ann Arbor Film Festival. He received a BFA from
Massachusetts College of Art, MFA from Bard College and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

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