Until the Light Takes Us - A documentary film about Norwegian black metal

Until the Light Takes Us is a 2008 American documentary film about Norwegian black metal, from directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. It was released on December 4, 2009.

Featured interviewees

Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell (Darkthrone)
Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes (Burzum)

Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg (Mayhem)
Olve "Abbath" Eikemo (Immortal)
Harald "Demonaz" Nævdal (Immortal)
Bjarne Melgaard (visual artist)
Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg (Ulver, Arcturus)
Kjetil "Frost" Haraldstad (Satyricon, 1349, Keep of Kalessin)
Bård "Faust" Eithun (Emperor) – Eithun chose to appear as a silhouette, with his voice distorted

Release
Variance Films acquired the theatrical rights to the film in the U.S., and released it in New York City on December 4, 2009. The film grossed $7,246 on a single screen in its first week, the second highest per-screen gross of any debuting film at the time (behind Up in the Air).

Reception
Until the Light Takes Us has received a 54% approval rating at Metacritic and a 45% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com called the film "crafty and compelling". Nick Pinkerton of The Village Voice said, "The filmmakers seem cowed into obeisance by their subjects. Varg's last onscreen appearance is accompanied by a montage fitting a schoolyard crush, and the film's title is the translation of Burzum's fourth album, Hvis lyset tar oss.  [the film] arrives a decade too late to add much."

"Until The Light Takes Us" tells the story of black metal. Part music scene and part cultural uprising, black metal rose to worldwide notoriety in the mid-nineties when a rash of suicides, murders, and church burnings accompanied the explosive artistic growth and output of a music scene that would forever redefine what heavy metal is and what it stands for to other musicians, artists and music fans world-wide. The film goes behind the highly sensationalized media reports of "Satanists running amok in Europe" to examine the complex and largely misunderstood principles and beliefs that led to this rebellion against both Christianity and modern culture. To capture this on film, directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell moved to Norway and lived with the musicians for several years, building relationships that allowed them to create a surprisingly intimate portrait of this violent, but ultimately misunderstood, movement. The result is a poignant, moving story that's as much about the idea that reality is composed of whatever the most people believe, regardless of what's actually true, as it is about a music scene that blazed a path of murder and arson across the northern sky.

http://www.blackmetalmovie.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014809/