LONDON IN SILENCE

2018, 11 mins

“3 am is eternal. 3 am is infernal. It´s the time at which fear and sadness and regret rack up so that it becomes impossible to get to sleep. 3 am is the dark heart of the city, when the silent night amplifies the din in our skulls, returns us to a primal solitude.” (Sukhdev Sandhu 2007)

"London in Silence" explores the moment in which 'the better version of oneself' crumbles. A slowly flowing substance makes its way - from the inner worlds of callers into their telephones, through London´s cable network towards the speaker of one the volunteers of the wellbeing hotline Nightline. "Often though callers stay on the line for over a quarter of an hour without saying a word. But silence is not silent." A late night encounter with a listener on the other side of a "London in Silence”.


Camera, sound, editing by Max Bloching
Voiceover based on “Night Haunts” Written by Sukhdev Sandhu
Published by Artangel and Verso 2007
Copyright © Sukhdev Sandhu
Voice by Milo Cradick
Music by Tom Woerndl

Telephone interview with a volunteer of the wellbeing hotline “Nightline” 

Thanks to the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths University of London.


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