Originally made in 1996, recut (added picture layers and a new soundtrack) in 2018.
Onscreen text scrolls up a letter by my dearly deceased underground film pal Tom Chomont. In it he speaks of the white light after death, Parkinson’s, and his brother’s last moments in a New York emergency ward dying of AIDS. Originally the scrolling text appeared over dark pictures shot in Disneyland, its architectures designed to stage the family, its dark inhabitants floating on rivers of light and sound. Now a phantasmagoria of family life, drawn sexual encounters, cellular impressions and animals weave in and out of the frame, while a rich mix of sounds gathered across lifetimes float past.
“Eternity takes the form of a letter about fighting disease and practicing loss, superimposed over haunting images of old teacups, people in boats and water.” San Francisco International Festival Catalogue, 1999
“In the third part, Eternity, a letter of Tom Chomont overlaps footage from a family archive. The words are suddenly more important than the picture. It is a long passionate confession about dying and light.” Jihlava Documentary Festival Catalogue
“The treatment and effects of AIDS reform these subjects, but also the sexual body with all its desires and questions, and the almost dying body that can temporarily leave the world to be absorbed by what is called ‘the white light’ in Eternity. Voice-overs and intertitles alternate and speak sometimes in loaded (quoted) words, and then again in casual little lines like: “I am writing these thoughts because they relate to that moment in my kitchen when we speak and what happens to us.” This intimacy is typical of Panic Bodies. The voice speaks directly to the viewer, confessing, admitting, raising questions… The third chapter is entitled Eternity and features a video letter which appears over barely visible pictures made in Disneyland. The letter is by Tom Chomont, subject of Hoolboom’s next movie, and relates the death of his brother, and the white light that accompanies the beginning and end of life. Esma Moukhtar, Montevideo Catalogue
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