The circumstances surrounding the discovery of By Night with Torch and
Spear are as enigmatic as the film itself. Shortly before his death,
the artist transferred his personal movie collection to Anthology Film
Archives for safekeeping. Inspecting the cache several years later,
archivists noticed several meticulously edited reels without a title or
date. By Night with Torch and Spear was among them.
Through subversive editing, Cornell takes silent-era educational found
footage of steelmaking, exotic locals, and insects and turns the world
inside out. The scenes are shown in reverse, color tinted or in negative.
The intertitles, which like the visuals are often inserted backward or
upside down, are signposts that give little direction. Like the path sought
by the night hunters in the closing shot, the meanings of the film remain
elusive, just beyond our grasp.
Now recognized as a major twentieth-century artist, Joseph Cornell
(1903-72) is best known for his exquisite display boxes of found objects.
Cornell rarely showed his films. He had been discouraged by the infamous
premiere of Rose Hobart (1936), probably the first found footage
work screened in America. The event is said to have been cut short when
surrealist Salvador Dali kicked over the projector in envy. Cornell
continued creating collage films secretly.