Doubt

Abstract

In 2016, it was 25 years since Erik Knudsen’s first feature length film was publicly screened: One Day Tafo, Channel Four Television, 1991, UK. Doubt was always a big part of his creative and spiritual development and continues to play a big part in his creative and spiritual search. Over the years he has learned to see it, recognise it, and embrace it.

Now seems an appropriate moment to pause and reflect on his creative journey. With this in mind, the Doubt Project – book and film – has been constructed out of recent photographs, his entire body of films and some reflexive writing related to this theme of doubt from the past 25 years of writing notebooks. He has created a new reflexive film out of his previous films. Some of the poems in the book have found their way into the narration of the film, as have some of the photographs. The structure of the film mirrors that of the narrative of the book.

"I discovered that the history of philosophical and mystical thought is riddled with expressions of doubt. In the Judaeo Christian tradition, of course, the Bible is full of examples of expressions of doubt, from Job to Jeremiah to the Psalms. Such laments calling into the wilderness for signs and proof of God, for meaning and purpose in the midst of a cruel and unfair world are common in such laments, poetry and songs, but there are very few examples of audio visual works being used in this way. Doubt has been inspired by these laments; in particular Psalm 22 from the Bible, which has helped provide a tradition and structural bedrock from which to explore."