Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright is a stunning piece of pastoral surrealism in two parts, “Prelude” and “Oraison”, set to an electro-acoustic composition by analog filmmaker Gaëlle Rouard. Combining in-camera visual effects, such as split screens, exposure shifts and superimpositions with handmade photochemical processing, the film strip becomes a record of rigorous and intoxicating experimentation. Rouard performs as both alchemist and painter, investing objects with a sense of stubborn, almost pictorial opacity