In the town of St. Gabriel, in the Autonomous Province of Michigan, a beautiful still life of economies and privilege on the verge of ruin through the forces of folly, a documentary filmmaker is videotaping members of a local theater group as they create an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In the process of making his documentary, his film becomes enmeshed in stories of conspiracy and murder revolving around an old man suffering from dementia, his son, and his grandson. Simultaneously, within both the town and the old man, the spirits of Halloween and Christmas are running together. Strange scenes are being acted out in a series of masquerades, an ongoing festival season of mourning and excess being mysteriously presided over by an enigmatic figure, seemingly part human, part angel, and part trickster.
That was a synopsis, but what was it a synopsis of?
Masks in the Sun was not simply a movie in the traditional sense. It used film to lead a theater audience to encounter feelings common to those with dementia on one hand, and the folly of algorithm-driven, melancholic conspiracy culture on the other. It remains a moving portrait of this culture from a time when it was said to be libertarian and before it had discovered its true self.
Here is a review from the local paper in which the journalist was open and fair to what she had experienced. It was published the week before the first screening.
Click here to see this local review.
Added to the audience’s experience after watching the 2-hour, 20-minute film, there were masked figures at theater exits handing those leaving a letter written by an adversary of the director, telling them they had all been fooled.
Click here to see this letter.
Among the audience members was a local woman who insisted she was offended for aesthetic rather than political reasons. Her response via an editorial says quite a bit about a culture that was outwardly becoming increasingly suspicious, cruel and committed to destructive folly, but at its heart was (and remains) full of dangerous melancholia.
Click here to see this editorial rant.
The Film
The Filmmaker
As to who did the writing, the lighting, sound, shooting, editing, and directing—it was Gabriel Embeha. Yet, nobody really need care who made the film.
Trailers
This is preliminary sketch of the casting call, meant to explain the film to potential actors and volunteers. It contains a plot summary, the film’s structure, and character descriptions.
“The main story line of this film has two interwoven parts: (1) the ‘real life
story’ about a group of actors creating a play, and (2) the play they are
constructing itself. The film’s screenplay required three actors to play
two separate roles—one as a ‘real life story’ character, and the other as a
character in the play his or her character is helping produce.”
This is a very early version of the script. If one has seen the film, one can see changes made.
The film’s wardrobe was aided by a local woman who worked for different local theater groups. To help her and to help the director choose shooting sites, a color layout was made. In terms of location of stage and some other shots, the colors were meant to resemble some of the later work on Rembrandt and his school.
With the help of the film’s producer, many people offered their houses as shooting locations. In addition to this, more sound-stage-like spaces were provided by a local bank, a local theater, and the town newspaper.
In the years before shooting various small video pieces were made, some of which show characters and setting types that would eventually appear in the film. One particular kind of shot was done in a car moving around the town. This was to make up a significant number of scenes in the film, but needed to be changed due to changes in the script.
Production Positions – Volunteers
Many of the roles from this preliminary list were carried out by Embeha and his assistant Jordan Cuatt.
The Budget
The total budget for the film was approximately $20,000. This included the cost of equipment.
Local Support
The shooting needed so much that a group of great local persons stepped up to provide.
Kraft Services, Coordinator: Ann Moulin
Kraft Services, Assistant: Steven Lake
Food Suppliers:
Pastrami Joe’s, Rollo’s Mancino’s Pizza, Charlie’s Grill and BBQ, John Merucci,
RoMa’s Corner Café, Marshall Moonraker, Speedy Chick
Costuming: Nancy King, Judy Edsall, Barbara Walker
Hair and Make-up: Dian Sykora
Sound Stages and Shooting Locations: Southern Michigan Bank and Trust, Marshall Branch, Home of Bob & Michelle, Meese, apartments of Michael Sullivan, The Imperial Motel, Marshall Framing Studio, Harold Brooks Memorial Fountain, home of Barb and Drew Walker, apartment of Donna Daines, McClellan Arms Apartments, apartment of Carl Gibson, home of Charles and Mary Duckwall, warehouse of Marshall Advisor & Chronicle. Monarch Community Bank, Great Escape Stage Company, Stuart’s Landing, Acreage of Richard Lindsey.
Some Persons-Places-Things
The Autonomous Province of Michigan
St. Gabriel
The Nound Spirits (Nound Spooks)
The Financial Crisis of 1837
The 110 Society (The One Ten)
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Christmas
Halloween
Dramatic Adaptations
Dementia
Elder Abuse and Exploitation
Judgeships
Divorce and Child Custody
Gun Violence
Mourning
The Military
Community Theater
Documentary Filmmaking
Extramarital Affairs
Libertarian Conspiracy Rumoring
Private Investigation
Dramatic Roles and Directing
Dreams and Dreaming
Masks in the Sun Days
Masks in the Sun Days was an installation in the window of an empty downtown storefront. It was in place for around three weeks prior to the first showing.
Music
The score was built around a song called the Lyke Wake Dirge. It is a 14th-century traditional Northern English funeral song/chant detailing the soul’s perilous journey through purgatory after death, specifically crossing Whinny Moor. Whinny Moor is primarily known as a place in Northern English folklore as a thorny, difficult land the soul must cross after death. It signifies a purgatorial landscape, often associated with historical corpse roads down which bodies would be carried after death to distant churchyards for burial. The title translates to “corpse-watch” (lyke = corpse, wake = watch).
The composer of the score is Elden Kelly. I met him through a mutual acquaintance who worked with him in a music store. Kelly is a guitarist who works in the intersection of jazz, classical and world music. He also works as singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. He graduated from Boston’s prestigious New England Conservatory of Music with a degree in Contemporary Improvisation in 2008. After that, he was based in the Lansing, Michigan area for over a decade. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 2023 when his wife, classical oboist Lani Kelly, joined the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. His playing style is distinctive. Kelly plays a modified, fully hollow-body nylon-string guitar and also plays fretless guitar.
The following is a list of parts from the score that Kelly composed and played:
1837
110 society #1
110 Society #2
110 Society #3
110 Society #5
Closing In End Theme Mix 1 (stereo strings)
Dance of Mike’s Dream
Darkness in St. Gabriel
Ending Music Short Mix 1
Gene’s Dinner
Giving Up the Ghost 2
Giving Up the Ghost 2 1
Interlude 1
Interlude 2
John’s 2nd Theme
Lyke Wake Variation Ambient
Lyke Wake Chimes 2
Lyke Wake Variations
Lyke Wake Voice Solo
Lisa_judge Phone Call_1
Marla’s 2nd Theme
Masks End 2 Theme Mix 1
Masks End Theme Mix 2
Mystery of the Masks Background
Narrative 4 Ring Mod
Narrative 7
Narrative 8
Narratives 2
Narratives 3 Gtr No Verb
Noun Spooks 4 Mix 2
Party Pam Stands Up
Party Scene 1
Spirits-3 Visitors Variation Mix
St. Gabriel’s Theme 1
St. Gabriel’s Theme 2
The Meeting #1
The Players_ Masks
Victims 2
Waiting #2 Less Reverb
An Essay
Is Masks in the Sun what has been called an essay film? If so, one of the main points of this essay is that there are no pictures, just combined person-place-things.
When I say a picture is me, I don’t need to flip and flop around saying “I meant to say” it is a picture of me, or it is an image of me, and so on. The need to say “this is a picture of my grandmother” instead of “this my grandmother” has a whole world of control and oppression behind it.
So, this moving picture/and more called Masks in the Sun is many things, but we should refuse to say it “is of” many things. The difference is crucial.
Which Audience Member Are You?
This is playful and experimental sketch of how one might relate to dementia when watching what I call the diagnostic screening of the film as seen in its one and only showing.
The Press Kit is a mishmash of perspectives that served as a preliminary way of describing the film as a stand-alone, feature film, which it never could be. The film was never submitted to any sort of film festival, as it would not fit into any of them.
Music for Dementia Care
The proceeds for the film’s screening were dedicated to providing i-Pods, songs, and headphones for those impoverished and living with dementia in a local long term care facility.