Light Of My Life
With Light of My Life, Casey Affleck, who also plays the father, presents his second directorial work, a mixture of survival drama and coming-of-age story.
A father tells his child a story. It is evening, and they are lying in a tent in the middle of the forest. What at first glance appears idyllic turns out to be an exceptional situation: in this post-pandemic world, the father is doing everything in his power to protect his daughter Rag. When the exhausted pair is taken in by three old men, danger seems to be averted, and perhaps a home and surrogate family has been identified. But this is a desperate and violent world, and the small measure of peace the parent and child find is soon lost.
After several very successful roles (THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, GONE BABY GONE), Casey Affleck made the unexpected choice to direct his creative energy to I’M STILL HERE, an experimental documentary about brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix. Affleck would supposedly chronicle Phoenix's new career path as a rapper. Already during the shooting of the film Amanda White, one of the producers of I’M STILL HERE, came out with allegations of Affleck's intimidating behaviour. The allegations ranged from countless misogynistic and sexual statements and text messages, to physical threats and unwanted sexual approaches. Camera director Magdalena Gorka came out with similar accusations. In her official complaint, she called her experiences with Affleck "the most traumatizing of her career." Both cases were eventually settled for undisclosed amounts.
In 2018 Affleck issued an incredibly belated apology in which he copped to contributing to an “unprofessional environment”. In that same interview, the actor indicated that he took #MeToo to heart: “I kind of moved from a place of being defensive to one of a more mature point of view, trying to find my own culpability. And once I did that I discovered there was a lot to learn.”