Origin of The Night (Amazon Cosmos)

The nearly two-hour film Origin of The Night (Amazon Cosmos) (shot between 1973–1977 and finished in 1982), which references a myth of the indigenous Tupi people, is a meditation on the South American rain forest that was filmed in its entirety along the Rhine near Düsseldorf Airport. In it, the dichotomies of day and night, new and old worlds, and nature and culture unfold glacially and immersively. Only at the very end, in the film’s closing credits, does Baumgarten reveal where the compelling and poetic images were shot.