Inspired by the work of Maya Deren
A short experimental film by Craig Devine
A Light that Never Sleeps
A series of images flash across the screen:
A razor cuts finely at a white powder. A man holds his hand
out to a little girl. The little girl holds a balloon next to
a dead tree. A woman looks up at the tangled branches of the
dead tree. A flower falls into a river. There are concentric
circles. A black figure stands in a long tunnel. The face of
a little girl flashes from a lamp. A train at full speed
flashes into frame. An eye dilates violently.
CUT TO
EXT. GRAVEYARD- DAY.
There is a shot an Angelic sculpture, silhouetted against the
horizon, with red and white ribbons undulating between its
outstretched hand.
CUT TO
Between a copice of tree branches we see a girl from behind,
with red and white ribbons in her hair, she looks towards a
woman standing next to a grave.
CUT TO
There is a shot of flowers and a packet of cigarettes, in
someone’s hand. The camera pans up to reveal a young woman
smoking a cigarette- behind her are a set of wings from the
Angelic sculpture of a gravestone: from the angle it appears
as though the wings are coming out of her back.
CUT TO
She walks to the gravestone and put down the flowers onto the
grave- we can see the girl watching her in the distance- as
she does so she places a Polaroid down of another younger
woman next to the grave. A couple of flowers drop from the
bouquet.
CUT TO
A shot of flowers resting in an iron grid of a storm drain
flooded with rain water.
CUT TO
The sudden close up of a speeding train violently whizzes
into frame.
EXT. A BLOCK OF FLATS- DAY.
The same woman at the graveyard comes out of the back
entrance of a block of flats- she places a package inside of
her jacket pocket- she then walks off down an alleyway as
long as the eye can see.
CUT TO
A White Bridge out of focus.
CUT TO
A hand rolls over a boulder- a bag containing drugs and money
are placed below the rock.
INT. A FLAT- NIGHT
Outside a block of flats with a glass exterior we see the
woman from the graveyard enter. The camera pans up to see her
zig-zag up the stairs to the top.
CUT TO
She bangs on a door. Eventually someone opens, another woman,
slightly younger- she begins to speak.
SOPHIE
Calm down Grace. For fucks sake…
Grace doesn’t answer and they both walk into the kitchen and
sit down at a table. She looks at the package on the kitchen
table. Sophie sparks a cigarette and offers one to Grace, she
sparks her up and begins to ramble anxiously.
GRACE
Sophie we need to get this sorted
with Kane- he’s going to kill us
both. You do know that, right?
SOPHIE
No he’s no. Grace, calm down. He’s
aw bark and spit.
GRACE
I know. I’ve seen it. I had one of
my dreams again Sophie
SOPHIE
No another one of your dreams.
GRACE
I keep seeing this shot of your
face…and blood. Blood. Stone.
A big stone. And you face in a
plastic bag.
SOPHIE
Good to know. Look Grace, all we
have to do is get this gear hawked.
Like pronto Tonto.
Sophie pushes the package on the table towards Grace. Grace
stares at it.
CUT TO
Shot of the same package, we pan out to see her in outside
the flats again and she places it in her coat.
EXT. TRAIN PLATFORM-DAY.
Grace stands on a bridge, we see over her shoulder, a train
goes by directly below her.
INT. FLAT- NIGHT.
We can see, out of focus, Sophie behind a coffee table
crowded with empty bottles of MD 40/40 and Buckfast, lying on
a couch. Between a huddle of ashtray’s, tinfoil, spoons,
razors, cans, pills, and disposable lighters, is the young
woman.
CUT TO
A razor cuts at a white substance, it is sliced into a fine
powder.
CUT TO
We follow Sophie as she walks into the kitchen: she looks in
the fridge. Its empty. She looks in the cupboards. They’re
empty as well. She searches frantically down the back of the
couch and under it to see if there is any money- she finds a
few pounds in change.
CUT TO
An eye dilates violently.
EXT. CITY CENTRE- DAY.
We see her coming out of a 24/7 shop with a bottle of wine in
a bag.
CUT TO
EXT. PARK CIRCUS- DAY.
She drinks her bottle of wine on the steps of Park Circus,
she tilts slightly drunk on them, swaying gently.
EXT- PARK CIRCUS- EARLY EVENING.
Still drinking on the steps she grabs at someone leg as they
go by, she shouts something at them and then laughs. She
speaks to herself.
CUT TO
EXT. BENEATH GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS- LATE EVENING.
She is in a darkened subterranean urban space: she is
drinking, her shoe is missing; she begins to dances and sing.
CUT TO
EXT. A WHITE BRIDGE IN FOREST- DAY.
A man holds his hand out to a little girl. A flower falls
into the water below. There are concentric circles.
CUT TO
EXT. BENEATH GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS- MORNING.
In the morning we see Sophie sleeping on the ground, a bottle
of Buckfast sits next to her- she rouses groggily as she
slowly wakes up, she knocks the bottle over.
SOPHIE
The blackness has seeped into me.
I’m like that bird drowning in oil.
Nothing can clean me.
CUT TO
EXT. FINNIESTON- NIGHT.
There is a shot of Sophie standing at the other end of a long
underpass. We scene is cut in half: a man comes to buy drugs
from her and goes away.
CUT TO
Grace’s image is doubled in a long window opposite the Rogano
restaurant. We can see them both walk up hills in the city,
one after the other. Grace stands framed by two Greek pillars
at GOMA, looking down Ingram Street.
CUT TO
Grace is now at the underpass at Finnieston, she sells drugs
to someone.
CUT TO
There are various distance shots of Sophie selling drugs to
an assortment of people: we see her in an industrial estate;
meeting someone on a green bridge.
CUT TO
Grace still stands at the underpass, behind her is a black
figure, motionless. It says something and she slowly turns.
BLACK FIGURE
Time present and time past are both
perhaps present in time future. And
time future in time past.
She walks towards it, but it suddenly vanishes.
CUT TO
Sophie moves up a neon escalator, she vanishes through an
exit at the top. We cut to her at the end of a long bleak
yellow tunnel at night. The black figure gazes at her from
the other side of the tunnel and speaks.
BLACK FIGURE
In my beginning is my end.
CUT TO
Sophie walks down an alleyway and stops in front of a door.
CUT TO
The black figures is coming closer to Sophie, there are the
sounds of footsteps echoing the tunnel.
BLACK FIGURE
Footfalls echo in the memory.
CUT TO
Grace walks right up to the door in the alleyway.
CUT TO
Over Sophie’s shoulder we see the black figure standing in
the shadows of the tunnel.
BLACK FIGURE
Down the passage we did not take
towards the door we never opened.
CUT TO
Grace stands at the door.
CUT TO
INT. FLAT-DAY.
There’s a shot of another door, the camera pan away from door
toward Grace standing in a hallway, shadows cut across her
face, she looks confused. Her distress is heightened by
someone banging at the door. Cut back to door, Grace looks
through the spy-hole: she sees herself standing at the other
side of the door. She looks terrified. Eventually she opens
the door, Sophie barges her way into the flat and make her
way into the kitchen.
CUT TO
GRACE
How did I get here?
SILENCE
GRACE
Have you seen a black figure
recently?
SOPHIE
Have you taken your pills today?
Here they are, here take one.
Grace takes one of the pills, she sits down.
GRACE
I keep forgetting the names of
things.
Sophie hands her a glass of water.
How…I feel like I’m dead. It
really feels that way sometimes.
The old telephone on the kitchen table suddenly rings, Grace
answers it.
VOICE ON PHONE
What we call the beginning is often
the end. And to make an end is to
make a beginning. The end is where
we start.
Grace puts the phone down, violently.
SOPHIE
Who was it Grace?
GRACE
I don’t know.
Sophie hands Grace a package.
SOPHIE
This is the reason I came.
Grace do you remember a white
bridge- did dad ever take us
somewhere with a white bridge?
GRACE
What, eh?
SOPHIE
Ugh, it’s nothing. Just a dream I
keep having. About dad. Do you ever
wonder why he did it?
GRACE
Don’t remember a white bridge.
Sophie picks up a towel sitting among a pile of un-ironed
washing.
SOPHIE
For gods sake Grace look at this
place, no wonder your depressed.
Come on get up! It’s a decent day
out there- come on lets go to the
beach!
They both leave the frame and the camera lingers on a shot of
a beach picture.
CUT TO
EXT. BEACH- DAY.
Various shots of Sophie and Grace on the beach. They have
their shoes off, feet on sand. They sit at a bench eating
cones. Sophie plays in the water. Grace stands on the sand.
Grace takes a photo of Sophie with her Polaroid camera. We
see them on a pier, standing next to a white-rusted beacon.
Sophie puts lipstick on Grace. They both look down on the
water.
SOPHIE
I always have the impression of
forgetting something as there was a
time when I knew nothing.
Grace looks perplexed, she continues to gaze down into the
sea. Sophie places her hand on Grace’s shoulder- from behind
we can see them both looking down in the dark maw of the sea.
SOPHIE
Grace, do you ever think of what
life would be like if dad was still
here?
There is a pregnant pause, a solemn silence. Grace looks at
Sophie, speechless, as though in the throes of something
ineffable. Eventually she breaks the silence.
GRACE
Da’s no here though is he.
Sophie turns to Grace with a perplexed look on her face, then
gazes out into the sea below- her face suggests she is absent
from the moment.
GRACE
Can we go home now Sophie?
CUT TO
Sophie and Grace down a hill beside a long grey wall- we can
see a young man on the other side of the wall, standing at
the corner so they cannot see him. Sophie takes her red hat
off and puts it on Grace’s head. Grace hugs Sophie. Sophie
holds on tight and hugs Grace for an inordinately long time.
Grace looks puzzled. Eventually she lets go of her sister.
SOPHIE
You need to take this Grace.
Grace looks at the package, the one from earlier, she looks
confused but takes it anyway.
SOPHIE
I need to go and see dad, he’s
waiting.
Sophie walks away and vanishes around a corner, Grace follows
her with her eyes, but again she seems confused.
CUT TO
We see Grace from the young man’s POV, she comes down the
street. The young man hides again and Grace suddenly comes
around the corner- he then grabs her.
YOUNG MAN
Where’s ma money?
GRACE
Kane!
KANE
Where’s ma fucking money? Where’s
the gear?
SOPHIE
I’ve hidden it Kane- up at the
park.
KANE
Whit did yae dae that for?
SOPHIE
I had to.
KANE
Right lets go then. Nae cunt had
better taken that gear.
CUT TO
EXT. PARK- EARLY EVENING.
Grace and Kane are in the park. They walk up a long trail, as
though gaining height. Grace pulls at a boulder and beneath
is a bag of drugs.
CUT TO
EXT. PARK- EARLY EVENING.
Grace takes a few steps, backing away from Kane. She holds up
the large bag of drugs- much of it white powder. Kane looks
furious.
KANE
Where’s the fucking cash?
GRACE
What cash?
KANE
Whit? I knew I shouldn’t have
giving you this gig- I was just
doing you a favour.
SOPHIE
A favour for what?
KANE
Yer da- for everything he did for
me. Give me whit am owed right now!
CUT TO
EXT. PARK- EARLY EVENING.
Grace has retreated even more up the hill as she holds the
bag of drugs aloft. On a lower level Kane momentarily looks
diminished, powerless even. He appears to be spitting a fury.
KANE
Am warning you Grace!
GRACE
Right don’t take another step Kane!
KANE
Nae need tae lose the heid noo!
CUT TO
Grace pours out all the drugs from the bag. She shakes it as
it billows through the air. Kane mechanically, like an
automaton, falls to the ground to look for the drugs.
KANE
Ya fucking wee cow!
Kane crawls around looking for his drugs in the grass but
finds nothing- he looks like crying- he sees Grace laughing
at him. He runs at her and hits her hard. Grace falls to the
ground and her head hits the rock. Her head rolls a little to
the side and we see Sophie looking back at us. Kane looks in
terror. There is also a lot of blood. Kane looks down at her
as she looks up at him, she sees the black figure looking
back- he then runs away. We see a shot of her shoe. The
package sits next to her. Red and white ribbons are in one of
her hands that rests on the grass.
CUT TO
Her other hand hangs in the air, as though reaching out for
something. It partially conceals the sun above, there is a
lens flare from the sun, and a fine line of blood runs down
her open hand.
CUT TO
She looks to the blue sky above her- she mumbles something.
She smiles [in close up]. She looks into the distance, there
is a flash of a razor lifting to reveal an eye violently
dilating on contact with light. A rock covered in blood. A
white bridge. The sudden close up of a speeding train
violently whizzes into frame. We see an older girl from
behind watch as a man takes a little girl by the hand. A
flower falls into the water ( in a reverse shot). The are
circles in the water are also reversed.
CUT TO
Grace, wearing red and white ribbons in her hair and a white
top is standing gazing over a landscape- she slowly turns and
we see the face of the girl. The girl turns her head away
again.
CUT TO
Grace climbs a steep spiral staircase.
CUT TO
Grace and Sophie are walking down a long tunnel, one is
further ahead than the other. There’s a black figure in the
distance. The little girl runs down the tunnel, she holds a
balloon. There’s a door, they approach it as if to enter it.
CUT TO
The little girl is standing looking out of a large tenement
bay-window.
CUT TO
A hallway, with two doors. Grace walks into shot from behind
the camera. She enters one of the doors. The little girl
comes out of the same door and then enters the door next to
it. Sophie opens a door, she is blinded by a strong light
from beyond it.
CUT TO
A flash of bright light: the girl stands next to a door. She
walks through dense foliage, she walks into a tangle of
leaves.
CUT TO
We see the young girl walking in a wooded area; she stops and
looks up at a tree and we see Grace looking at the gnarled
branches of the dead tree against the sky, there are red and
white ribbons draped from them. The little girl then turns
her head to see Sophie place flowers on a grave, she places a
picture of Grace on the grave. She turns again to look.
CUT TO
Kane is running through the forest, with panic set on his
face. She turns yet again. She sees Sophie in the woods
looking at her. Again she turns her head.
CUT TO
Through the trees she can see Grace lying with her head
covered in blood next to the rock. She walks on through the
woods. There’s a telephone in the forest, it rings, she picks
it up.
CUT TO
The young girl sits on the merry-go-round- a man pushes it
around rapidly.
CUT TO
We see the young girl smiling, happy. She appears to be
looking at a man, but we only see the back of his head, but
he has a telephone to his ear, as though speaking into it.
The shot cuts to Grace smiling at the man, then Sophie, back
again to the girl. The man seems to be saying something.
There is a voice of someone as though speaking through a
phone:
MAN
Be remembered; involved with past
and future. Only through time is
time conquered.
CUT TO
She places the phone down again. We follow Grace through
dense vegetation until she comes to the little girl watching
Sophie at the grave. The little girl, as though startled,
suddenly darts off.
CUT TO
The little girl twirls and dances and looks down to find a
pair of angel wings in the grass.
The father puts them on the girl. The little girl holds her
fathers hand as they walk down the hill- we see them from the
front silhouetted from the sun. Again the little girl twirls
around dancing [in slow motion]
VOICEOVER
I remember finding the wings in the
grass. I remember feeling like I
could fly.
A shot of Sophie looking at a blue door on a train platform,
she turns and a train hurtles passed furiously.
CUT TO
A momentary darkness. We hear heavy laboured breathing. There
is a walking through darkness, a deep darkness; the camera
moves upwards, there is a neon cross above.
A darkness deeper than time. Deeper
than death even.
There is a flash of bright light out of darkness and we see
the little girls face. We see her walk down a long tunnel,
she looks back, we can see Grace and Sophie following her.
Grace jumps from the final steps of the spiral staircase. She
looks back, she can see a high tower.
CUT TO
A silhouetted flock of birds scatter and fly upwards across
the blazing sky. The package floats down the river, a white
liquid seeps from it into the water.
CUT TO
The little girl has a balloon in her other hand. She is
smiling, laughing, giggling freely as children do.
Deep where stillness rolls, holds back, being’s breath.
The little girl lets the balloon go as it floats up into the
sky.
Darkness. Silence.
THE END
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