Banewl - Tacita Dean, 1999

Banewl was filmed entirely within the two hour and forty minute period of the total eclipse of the sun on 11 August 1999, and takes its title from a phonetic transcription of the Cornish pronunciation of the dairy farm’s name, ‘Burnewhall’. Because the day was overcast, the film became less about the event and more about the place during the event. The eclipse was about waiting for darkness to happen and then equally for the return of a normal sun. The clouds allowed us to experience this coincidence of cosmic time and scale on our terms and in our own human time, measuring it against the movements of animals and the fine detailing of our natural world. This film was originally commissioned by St Ives International for As Dark As Light 1999