About

The first film viewers wracked their brains for a meaning instead of relaxing into the ambient tapestry of random images… You can dream of lands far distant. - Derek Jarman, Dancing Ledge (1984)

In The Shadow of the Sun draws upon Derek Jarman's interest with alchemical processes as a metaphor for reprocessing Super-8 film. Jarman once described film's union of light and matter as "an alchemical conjunction" and experimented throughout his career with creating dream symbolism through the superimposition of image and action. Originally calledEnglish Apocalypse, the film's final title is derived from a 17th Century alchemical text that used the phrase as a synonym for the philosopher's stone – the highly sought substance that turns base metals into gold and silver. The film was intended as a step toward the idea of an ambient video, that like its musical counterpart, was designed to enhance an environment.

In 1974 Jarman began work on the project by using footage from his suite of Super-8 films called the Art of Mirrors 1973 to create the film's larger structure. This included material shot of landscapes previously seen in A Journey to Avebury 1973, Fire Island 1974 and They are Tarot (or the Magician) 1972-3 with footage of friends performing within a fiery maze of sawdust and paraffin. Jarman also re-filmed the final sequences of Ken Russell's film The Devils directly off a screen at the Elgin Cinema in New York. The material was then re-filmed using a postcard as a screen, two projectors and a series of coloured gels, creating up to seven layers of superimposition that Jarman described as "a blaze of impressionist colour". The original silent Super-8 material was projected at 3-6 frames per second and accompanied with audio tapes played manually.

With the help of James Mackay (then programmer for the London Filmmakers' Co-op) the film was rescued by the Deutschen Kinemathek in 1980, blown up to 16mm and screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1981. Throbbing Gristle recorded their improvised 8-track score from a VHS copy of the film and have described it as revelling in "distortion, chance and formlessness." In April 2009 Throbbing Gristle performed a new version of the soundtrack as the first act of their US tour.