black strangers, 2022
Single channel video, 8 minutes 13 secondsImage descriptions: Image 1 is of some ragged black fabric draped off a barbed wire fence, with dark greenery out of focus in the background. Image 2 is of a pair of brown hands sorting through a pile of folded up eighteenth century documents on a black surface, all of them labeled with handwritten dates and locations.
Image credits: Stills from black strangers by Dan Guthrie, 2022.
After seeing him mentioned on a Bishop’s Transcript held in Gloucestershire Archives, Dan goes for a walk in the woods in search of Daniel, a man buried in Nympsfield on the 31st of December 1719 and described on the document as ‘a black stranger’. Whilst walking, Dan talks directly to Daniel, speculating about the parallels between him and his namesake and wrestling aloud with the problems that come with trying to read the archive at face value and fill in its gaps.
black strangers was part of Right of Way, a new feature-length programme that mixes stunning new artists’ commissions with historical archive films that give a bigger picture of questions of access and inclusion in the UK countryside.
black strangers is distributed by LUX, please contact them for more information.
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Selected screenings and exhibitions
- Right of Way UK screening tour, Independent Cinema Office, 2022 - 2023
- Right of Way exhibition, LUX, 2023
- Haunting Ashton Court: An Evening of Performance, 2023
- 18th Forum Expanded, Berlinale, 2023 (International Premiere)
- wave 4 @ Light Industry, Prismatic Ground, 2023 (North American Premiere)
- aemi presents: Voice Recognition, Docs Ireland, 2023
- Vanishing Traces (International Competition), BIEFF, 2023
- Nothing Artificial (UK Competition), Encounters, 2023
- Selected 13 UK screening tour, FLAMIN / videoclub, 2023
- Two Films (solo exhibition), Devonshire Collective, 2023 - 2024
- Screening #33, Mascara Film Club, 2025
- Fieldwork on Film, Atlas Cinema, 2025
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Texts / Reviews
Right of Way Press Release
Independent Cinema Office, September 2022
Right of Way Review
Cath Clarke, The Guardian, September 2022
18th Forum Expanded Press Release
Berlinale, January 2023
Right of Way Review
Noo Saro-Wiwa, ArtReview, March 2023
black strangers Screening Notes
Chrystel Oloukoi, Prismatic Ground, April 2023
black strangers Screening Notes
Emil Vasilache, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, September 2023
Acting in Whispers (commissioned essay for Dan Guthrie: Two Films)
Siavash Minoudakeh, Devonshire Collective, November 2023