Tracing Light

What if light were the pulse of our planet? In Tracing Light, filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer (Rivers and Tides, Touch the Sound) leads us from the windswept Outer Hebrides to Germany’s Max Planck research labs.

Synopsis

Collaborating with artists Semiconductor, Julie Brook, Brunner/Ritz, and physicists probing single-photon pulses, he stages experiments that echo nature’s own light cycles: the dawn glow on tidal sands, the sparkle of bioluminescent plankton, the green flash of photosynthesis. Laser bursts and marble reflections become metaphors for climate rhythms and ecosystem balance. Each frame asks: how does light shape life, time, and seasonal change?

With painterly cinematography and an immersive soundscape, Tracing Light fuses art and science to illuminate our world’s delicate reliance on light, and urges us to safeguard the harmony it sustains.

Distributor: Sonja Henrici Creates

Screening Details

Festival Screening: 13 September 2025
Premiere: Scottish Premiere
Festival Guests: Producer Sonja Henrici and executive producer Leslie Hills

Trailer

About the filmmaker:

Thomas Riedelsheimer is an award-winning German filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor known for poetic, visually rich documentaries. His acclaimed films Rivers and Tides, Leaning into the Wind (both on land artist Andy Goldsworthy), and Touch the Sound (on musician Evelyn Glennie) have screened worldwide. A three-time German Film Award (Lola) winner, he co-founded Filmpunkt GmbH, and in 2018 launched the dok.art programme to support debut documentaries, which has since become an integral part of the renowned Drehbuchwerkstatt München. He has lectured at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg since 2006 and has taught internationally, including at Emily Carr Art School in Vancouver.