Look at What the Light Did Now ostensibly documents the making of The Reminder and subsequent touring, but, more broadly, is both an illumination of Feist’s unique collaborative process and a poetic collaborative work in itself. The film pulls back the curtain to reveal intimate partnerships with the people Feist calls her ‘amplifiers’: The photographer who helped her hide within the frame, shadow puppeteers in hockey arenas, an artist who built a thread-radiating mural, the video director who conducted fireworks, the pianist who guided the recording of the album, and other musical and visual collaborators.
Look at What the Light Did Now ostensibly documents the making of The Reminder and subsequent touring, but, more broadly, is both an illumination of Feist’s unique collaborative process and a poetic collaborative work in itself. The film pulls back the curtain to reveal intimate partnerships with the people Feist calls her ‘amplifiers’: The photographer who helped her hide within the frame, shadow puppeteers in hockey arenas, an artist who built a thread-radiating mural, the video director who conducted fireworks, the pianist who guided the recording of the album, and other musical and visual collaborators.
It follows Feist and her supporting cast through an impressionistic array of flickering scenery, echoing stadiums, puppet workshops, the red carpet, a crumbling French mansion, definitive concert performances and uncommonly candid interviews. Itself a part of the creative mosaic it portrays, Look At What The Light Did Now portrays the synergy of collaboration, art as magnifying glass, and the power of trust.
The film premiered at Pop Montreal and Raindance in London, and was screened in Mexico City, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Berkeley, San Francisco, Seattle, Istanbul, Turku, Talinn, Stockholm, Warsaw, Vienna, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Calgary, Grand Rapids, Ithaca, Vancouver, Toronto, Minneapolis, Bristol, Whitehorse, Marfa, Portland, Adelaide, Milwaukee, Rosarito, Tijuana, and more before being released on DVD. The DVD included a bonus content of live songs from The Reminder Tour, and select songs from the soundtrack of the film as performed by Gonzales on solo piano.
“After the Reminder experience, I was all too aware of all the people who had created it with me. I took on making the documentary to try and shed some light on those collaborators who’d partnered with me on aspects of that album that added up way beyond me. It was a weird thing to do; I was so sick of myself but then I spent a year and a half or two years or whatever it was making this echo of the previous few years. But I felt compelled to strike some balance on behalf of my behind the scenes version of the story. I thought ‘I’ll make the document, tell the story and then move on.’”
