Ten Thousand Points of Light screens at Mary’s tomorrow
Local record label Dust-to-Digital recently issued <i>Ten Thousand Points of Light</i>, the 1991 VHS-shot documentary about the Townsend family’s outlandishly decorated home, for the first time on DVD.
When do Christmas decorations become installation art? What are the aesthetic intersections between Elvis iconography and Christian iconography? What would a massive altar to Southern kitsch look like if it mounted in someone’s Stone Mountain home?
The answers to these questions may or may not be answered by Ten Thousand Points of Light, the 1991 VHS-shot documentary about the Townsend family’s outlandishly decorated home, but you’re more than welcome to ponder over them at Mary’s tomorrow evening. Local record label Dust-to-Digital recently issued the documentary for the first time on DVD, rescuing a bit of Atlanta folk art history from obscurity.
Linda Dubler, who currently serves as the curator of media arts at the High, wrote about the documentary for Creative Loafing in 1991 (a time that stretches back before our internet archives) noting the fine line that it navigates:
Ten Thousand Points of Light could have come across as a bad-tempered, Letterman-style trashing of working-class values and rituals. Instead, it’s a sly portrait, shadowed with hints of the surreal, that strikes a perfect balance between affection and awe-struck disbelief.
The screening starts at 9 pm on Wed., Dec. 8, but Mary’s promises to have bad holiday tunes playing all night long. More details on Facebook.