When It Is Dark

SYNOPSIS

A magical realism meditation on the afterlife, this tale of loss, bittersweet yearning and deep abiding love sees a woman visited by the spirit of her sister during a Newfoundland Mummering in the early 1900s. While the ghost facilitates a romance, it is the love between the sisters that transcends the physicality of death. The film was inspired by the writer/director’s own experience with her sister’s death and a chance encounter with the work of Canadian artist David Blackwood.

Writer/Director’s Inspiration
In the Spring of 2011, I by chance viewed a show by Canadian artist David Blackwood (www.davidblackwood.com) at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Amongst the exhibit were a series of about seven pieces, depicting Mummering in the early 1900s in a Newfoundland fishing village. I was so taken with his work and the idea of Mummering I immediately sat in the gallery and wrote the first draft of the script for When It Is Dark.
I think this is a great opportunity to preserve and highlight this East Coast tradition in the modern medium of film, which is often viewed more by the general population than traditional art.
The themes of love and loss are ones we humans struggle with constantly, especially in North American culture where we are now often so removed from the process of death. And with seemingly less young people practicing a traditional faith, we are also disconnected from beliefs in what happens after death. When It Is Dark is an exploration of all this, based on threads from my own life experiences.
Background
"Mummering" is a very old Newfoundland custom that dates back to the time of the earliest settlers who came from England and Ireland. It shares common antecedents with the Mummers Play tradition, but in its current form is primarily a house-visiting tradition. Sometime during the Twelve Days of Christmas, usually on the night of the "Old Twelfth", people would disguise themselves with old articles of clothing and visit the homes of their friends and neighbours. They would at times cover their faces with a hood, scarf, mask or pillowcase to keep their identity hidden. In keeping with the theme of an inversion of rules, and of disguise, cross-dressing was a common strategy, and men would sometimes dress as women and women as men. Travelling from house to house, some mummers would carry their own musical instruments to play, sing and dance in the houses they visited. The host and hostess of these 'mummers parties' would serve a small lunch which could consist of Christmas cake with a glass of syrup or blueberry or dogberry wine. Some mummers would drink a Christmas "grog" before they leave each house, a drink of an alcoholic beverage such as rum or whiskey. One important part of the custom was a guessing game to determine the identity of the visitors. As each mummer was identified, they would uncover their faces, but if their true identity is not guessed they did not have to unmask.