Lightdox Welcomes Robin Hunzinger’s ‘Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang’

We’re so excited to welcome Robin Hunzinger’s wonderful feature documentary Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang to our catalogue!

After the death of his grandmother Emma, Robin Hunzinger and his mother Claudie found a carefully preserved collection of letters which Emma received from a girl called Marcelle. Marcelle and Emma met in the mid-1920s. Secretly, love blossomed between the two teenage girls, but after two years they parted ways. Marcelle developed tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium, where she wrote many letters to Emma, letters that still burn with great evocative power. At the sanatorium, rebellious Marcelle, nicknamed ‘Ultraviolette’, led a group of three young women who were also sick. The film, told through Marcelle’s eloquent letters, combines archive footage, avant-garde films, and music to create a sensuous, poetic atmosphere of absolute love, a daring young woman ahead of her time and a group of kindred spirits which break the barrier of time.

Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang is produced by Milana Christitch for the French Ana Films.

The film had its World Premiere at this year’s IDFA, in the Luminous section, where it won the ReFrame Award for Best Creative Use of Archive.

“The story of Marcelle and Emma transcends time, place, and any other boundaries. Ultraviolette and the Blood-Spitters Gang is a delicate testimony of young love, true friendship, teenage rebelliousness, of finding one’s way in the world and it’s as beautiful as it is timeless. We at Lightdox are passionate about innovative and lively use of archive materials, and we’re confident that Robin Hunzinger’s artistic achievement and intense emotions this film conveys will be the same hook for the audience as it was for our team.”

Anna Berthollet, Lightdox CEO and founder