Light Darkness Light

At age 76, Ian Nichols - an Anglican priest who has been blind for nearly 40 years - becomes one of the first people in the world to attempt to regain sight with an implanted bionic eye. Melding intimate first-person verité with cinematic memory sequences and depth camera animation, Light Darkness Light presents an immersive narrative about memory, technology, faith and perception through one man’s extraordinary odyssey into the future.

"Father Ian Nichols has just had cutting-edge surgery. The darkness of the world he once lived in has now been transformed to one of abstract artificial vision. Acutely sensitive to the environment around him and articulate in conveying the sensations he experiences - physically, emotionally and spiritually - his presence transforms Light Darkness Light into a profound meditation on lived experiences. The film tackles themes of perception, memory and imagination, inviting viewers to contemplate their own connections to these ideas. At times strikingly beautiful, Van Soest’s empathetic portrait becomes a moving rumination of the way we live in the world and the role our senses play in being connected to it."
(Sheffield DocFest)