Episode 75: 10 Skies and le cinema du sky with Erika Balsom

The Last Thing I Saw

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw. I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold. Sometime in May or June, I had a marvelous conversation about the sky. Not just one sky, but 10 skies, in fact, with the critic Erika Balsom. Balsom wrote an insightful book about the lovely, thought-provoking landscape film 10 Skies, from filmmaker James Benning. I think I originally saw the movie at a festival in the late 2000s, and it was a pleasure to revisit. Happily I have a new occasion to make this conversation available, thanks to a screening of 10 Skies at the Open City Documentary Festival in London. But no matter the occasion, 10 Skies is a work that always rewards looking at from a number of angles, opening up questions about art and philosophy that keep shifting and turning in your head like the clouds above. Balsom’s book is available from Fireflies Press. You can support this podcast and read show notes with links at: rapold.substack.com Opening music: “Monserrate” by The Minarets Photo by Steve Snodgrass