Beatrice Gibson’s “At Night” Uses Poetry and Analogue Film to Probe Race, Class, and Motherhood

Beatrice Gibson’s feature “At Night” premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, presenting a hybrid of narrative cinema and collective autofiction. The film follows filmmaker Bea (played by Gibson) on a location-scouting trip in Paris and her fraught relationship with Didi (Diocouda Diaoune), a Black single mother living in emergency housing. Their interactions foreground structural pressures of race and class, while a chorus of women discuss motherhood, sex, and midlife revelation in a setting reminiscent of 1970s feminist consciousness-raising circles.

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Poetry operates as the film’s structural backbone, appearing in staged performances, voice-overs, and off-screen recitations that link characters and spaces. Grainy analogue footage shot by Ben Rivers adds a dream-like texture; the whir of the camera underscores the immediacy of each moment. Gibson notes that shooting on analogue creates a present-tense experience, contrasting with the predictability of digital logic.

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The narrative juxtaposes Bea’s privileged art-world background with Didi’s precarious living situation, exposing “polarities and asymmetries” that arise from their intersectional lives. Gibson emphasizes the feminist maxim “the personal is political,” portraying motherhood without showing children—through phone calls, texts, and absent-parent moments—to illustrate varied experiences of embracing, evading, or grieving maternal roles.

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Gibson explains her artistic approach as rooted in privilege that obliges her to “stay with the trouble” rather than flee from uncomfortable power imbalances.

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• “I come from an art world context, which is kind of a privilege, because you’re taught to stay with the trouble,” — Gibson — Beatrice Gibson, filmmaker

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• “Shooting on analogue makes everything present tense,” — Gibson — Beatrice Gibson, filmmaker

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These statements encapsulate Gibson’s intent to blend art-world reflexivity with a non-compliant, non-conformist portrayal of women navigating contemporary societal pressures.

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