Following the path of a total solar eclipse across three landscapes: Mazatlán, Carbondale, and Cleveland. Shot in Super 8 and 16mm, in black-and-white and color, the film captures the April 8, 2024 eclipse moving through time zones. Kevin Jerome Everson's distinctive visual language meditatively portrays moments of darkness uniting communities separated by geography and culture. His contemplative silence transforms into acts of solidarity, memory, and witnessing, inviting reflection on how cosmic phenomena shape collective consciousness and experience—grounding the universal in intimate encounters.

When the Sun is Eaten (Chi’bal K’iin) is the latest entry in visual artist Kevin Jerome Everson’s ongoing series on solar and lunar eclipses. Shot on Super 8mm, 16mm, in both black-and-white and color, the film captures the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, as seen across North America. Working with cinematographers in Mazatlán, Mexico; Carbondale, Illinois; and Cleveland, Ohio, Everson follows the rare celestial alignment of Earth, Moon, and Sun. Three sequences show the Sun being swallowed by the Moon and re-emerging—each from a different vantage point, with shifting coordinates, speed, and altitude. While rooted in an astronomical event, the work is also an extension of Everson’s cinematic method, in which black-and-white is not merely a visual choice but a motif that refracts the phenomenon into metaphor. The eclipse becomes a meditation on conflict, balance, and the enduring dynamics of power, linking the cosmic to the human.

My work must project and reveal the materials, procedure and process. This approach comes from my undergraduate art instruction and influences. It was a post- Smithson approach that is not necessarily important to be noticeable to the viewer; it explains how I continue to approach the craft of art making. I firmly believe that the materials(film, video) of the work must be noticeable. A light flare, over-exposed film, color flares, distorted sounds and even prolonged taping enhances my notion of materiality.

• ProducerMadeleine MOLYNEAUX
• Cinematography Kevin Jerome EVERSON, Jack DOERNER, Kera MACKENZIE, Andrew MAUSERT-MOONEY, Anthony RESTIVO, Matilda WASHINGTON, Alyce YANG
• Edit Kevin Jerome EVERSON
• Music David DOMINIQUE
• Cast Derron EVERSON, The SUN