SUMMARY

The Cave Without a Name is a political essay film exploring nocturnal forms of resistance to 24/7 capitalism. Amidst a world colonized by light, The Cave Without a Name travels from bat habitats to punk music shows to the streets to ask how night’s wonders might be integral to a better future.

PRESS

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Biennale College increases funding, unveils 12 projects chosen for next residency

Global Working Group to bring stories of life and death in today’s changing climate to Northwestern

The Outer Space of Consciousness

SYNOPSIS

In the wild blue night, a continuous swarm of bats pours out of Bracken Cave, the largest bat colony in the world. These bats are our guide throughout The Cave Without a Name.  From bat conservation to rest activism to dark sky parks and punk shows, these arenas become sites of nocturnal thriving in the context of 24/7 capitalism. 24/7 capitalism–referring to the nonstop processes of our economic system–has eroded the distinction between day and night. It has produced issues like light pollution and requires workers to labor through the night. These issues disturb the biological rhythms of humans and nonhumans alike. 

While 24/7 capitalism has had a detrimental impact, The Cave Without a Name takes viewers on a journey from a dystopian realm of light pollution and overwork to an appreciation of night and nocturnal life as reservoirs of resistance and healing. The Cave Without a Name connects the Dark Sky movement’s effort to protect darkness; a night worker’s journey to restore her circadian rhythm; the life of nocturnal animals like bats; nightscapes of the world’s first Dark Sky city; and more metaphorical perspectives on night and nocturnal life that range from rest activism and “rest as resistance”; to feminist Take Back the Night protests; to dream research and analysis; and the night as a time for creative production. Throughout the film, the cave functions as both a bat habitat and a metaphor–a site of dream, alterity, and possibility. Informed by texts like Jonathan Crary’s 24/7: Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, and Tricia Hersey’s Black feminist manifesto Rest as Resistance, The Cave Without a Name connects the poetry of the cosmos to human efforts to work less and dream more. The film’s night creatures and dedicated dreamers open onto broader existential questions about human and nonhuman life and our inextricably intertwined fates.

The Cave Without a Name uses a braided structure, and through an associative logic connects astronomers studying the dark night sky; rest activists; nightscapes of Flagstaff; a neuroscientist studying sleep and the function of dreams; punks; protestors; and conservationists studying the habitat and nightly emergence of bats at Bracken Cave. This structure takes viewers on a journey from a dystopian world characterized by light pollution, habitat-loss, and overwork, toward a robust appreciation of the ways that night and dream worlds create opportunities for liberation. 

Drawing from the stylistic innovations of art horror, The Cave Without a Name also takes up a bold visual approach that reframes natural and scientific processes as aesthetic ones as well. Inspired by luscious vampire films like Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel), Suspiria (Dario Argento) and Lost Highway (David Lynch), The Cave Without a Name applies the aesthetics of art horror–particularly its lighting, atmospherics, and elliptical structures–to documentary. While horror might seem to cast night in a negative light, it is through horror that filmmakers have framed the night as a time to confront social ills, explore hidden truths, and celebrate what lurks in the shadows. Taking influence from goth and punk music, also genres of the night, the film’s score will flesh out this hypnotic visual world. Performed by the post-punk band Sweeping Promises, who also appear in the film, the score will feature electric guitar, feedback, and nonverbal, haunting vocals. 

Overall, The Cave Without a Name aims to be an intellectual and civic catalyst for dialogue around oppressive, capitalist structures plaguing both human and nonhuman communities. By focusing attention on more livable alternatives that embrace night and all that thrives in its shadows, the film ultimately aims to inspire conversation as well as action regarding more reparative and sustainable possibilities for the future.

BIO

JESSICA BARDSLEY is an artist-scholar working across film, writing, and studio art. Her films have screened within the U.S. and internationally at festivals like CPH:DOX, Sundance, Visions du Réel, EMAF, RIDM, True/False, and on the Criterion Channel. She is the recipient of various awards, including a Princess Grace Award, Grand Prize at 25FPS, the Eileen Maitland Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Best Short Film at Punto de Vista, and numerous Harvard Film Study Center fellowships. Her first feature film, The Cave Without a Name, was a finalist for the 2022-2023 Venice Biennale’s Cinema College. She received a Ph.D. in Film and Visual Studies from Harvard University, an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a B.A. from the New College of Florida. She is Assistant Professor of Experimental Film and Media at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Website | Vimeo | Instagram

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