Visions of Light, the 1992 documentary film directed by Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy and Stuart Samuels, explores the in-depth art of cinematography.

The film, which features interviews from the likes of Nestor Almendros, John Bailey, Conrad Hall, Laszlo Kovacs, Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Haskell Wexler and more, covers the art of cinematography since the conception of cinema at the turn of the 20th century.

The leading figures of the craft discuss its importance of modern cinema, providing a major insight into the development of cinematography and the precise detail that comes with the skill. At times, the documentary pays homage to some of cinematography’s leading pioneers such as John Alton, Gregg Toland and Billy Bitzer while discussing iconic films like The Godfather, Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Raging Bull and more.

“The film is the equivalent of a walk through a cinema museum,” the film’s synopsis reads. “The doc interviews many modern-day directors of photography and they illustrate via examples their best work and the scenes from films that influenced them to pursue their art.”

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“Sometimes all it means is that the pictures are pretty, and for many people, I think, ‘cinematography’ somehow connects with vast outdoor vistas—the sand dunes in Lawrence of Arabia, or the Texas plains in Days of Heaven,” Roger Ebert writes. “But great cinematography can also consist of the look in an eye, the tense space between two people, or the shadows in the corner of a cramped room. Visions of Light is a documentary that will likely cause everyone who sees it to look at movies a little differently in the future.

“It is a film about cinematography, consisting of a great many great shots and sequences, commented on by the men (and a few women) who photographed them. In Visions of Light, many great cinematographers talk about their relationships with directors, with shots, and with the light. It is always hard to say exactly where a director’s contribution ends and the cinematographer’s begins, but it is always true that it’s the cinematographer’s responsibility to realize the director’s vision—and sometimes, they hint here, to supply it.”

Here it is: