CARLOS: BEING OF LIGHT is a feature-length documentary about a man making the invisible visible through his paintings as he translates his encounters with alien beings of light. As a result, Carlos asks us to reconsider human evolution, spirituality, and ecology, and why is it that we humans must feel in control of nature? For Carlos, empathy is the key to future relationships, whether with fellow humans, the planet, or Beings of Light. Watch as Carlos shows us in his art and the retelling of his alien encounter experiences how he collapses the distance between himself and a subject, which is what happens when making art and during the encounters.
Carlos retells his formative encounters when he traveled to the island of Iona, part of the Scottish Inner Hebrides Islands, in 1990, intrigued by it being an intersection of Celtic myths and legends and a Catholic pilgrimage site. On that trip, he took a hike on Easter Sunday up one of the hills. What started as a leisurely walk turned into a strange odyssey for Carlos. Six hours into the hike, as stood on Iona's rugged coastline, he lost consciousness. He awoke to a hauntingly beautiful image—a beam of light reaching down from the skies into the ocean—and photographed it. What has developed from Carlos' experiences there, which he refers to as "Lightfall," is a philosophy about encounters with beings of light.
After retiring in 2005, as a fine arts professor for 36 years from the University of the South, located on a mountaintop in Sewanee, Tennessee, he constructed IONA: Art Sanctuary nearby; an homage to his encounters on the island, and as a place to explore the mysteries of his encounters with Beings of Light. Scholars have compared his encounter experiences with those by other saints and mystics. Harvard psychiatrist, John E. Mack, devoted a chapter to Carlos in his groundbreaking and influential book from 1994, "Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens." The film culminates with a summer festival at IONA: Art Sanctuary, celebrating the creative voices in the Sewanee mountain-top community. He unveils a monumental, outdoor light sculpture, "The Celestial Sky," that will allow others to taste his own revelations that "light" is the world and source of understanding the universe.
- Year2021
- Runtime67 minutes
- DirectorTyler Stallings
CARLOS: BEING OF LIGHT is a feature-length documentary about a man making the invisible visible through his paintings as he translates his encounters with alien beings of light. As a result, Carlos asks us to reconsider human evolution, spirituality, and ecology, and why is it that we humans must feel in control of nature? For Carlos, empathy is the key to future relationships, whether with fellow humans, the planet, or Beings of Light. Watch as Carlos shows us in his art and the retelling of his alien encounter experiences how he collapses the distance between himself and a subject, which is what happens when making art and during the encounters.
Carlos retells his formative encounters when he traveled to the island of Iona, part of the Scottish Inner Hebrides Islands, in 1990, intrigued by it being an intersection of Celtic myths and legends and a Catholic pilgrimage site. On that trip, he took a hike on Easter Sunday up one of the hills. What started as a leisurely walk turned into a strange odyssey for Carlos. Six hours into the hike, as stood on Iona's rugged coastline, he lost consciousness. He awoke to a hauntingly beautiful image—a beam of light reaching down from the skies into the ocean—and photographed it. What has developed from Carlos' experiences there, which he refers to as "Lightfall," is a philosophy about encounters with beings of light.
After retiring in 2005, as a fine arts professor for 36 years from the University of the South, located on a mountaintop in Sewanee, Tennessee, he constructed IONA: Art Sanctuary nearby; an homage to his encounters on the island, and as a place to explore the mysteries of his encounters with Beings of Light. Scholars have compared his encounter experiences with those by other saints and mystics. Harvard psychiatrist, John E. Mack, devoted a chapter to Carlos in his groundbreaking and influential book from 1994, "Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens." The film culminates with a summer festival at IONA: Art Sanctuary, celebrating the creative voices in the Sewanee mountain-top community. He unveils a monumental, outdoor light sculpture, "The Celestial Sky," that will allow others to taste his own revelations that "light" is the world and source of understanding the universe.
- Year2021
- Runtime67 minutes
- DirectorTyler Stallings