As Slow As Possible

On his 18th birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa and told he would eventually go blind, and he has. It has taken 15 years, but now Ryan has less than 1% of his vision left in one eye. He is waiting for the last little bit to go -- when it does he will be plunged into total blindness. Around the same time, composer and philosopher John Cage wrote a composition called As Slow As Possible, intended to be played as slowly as possible. Originally written for piano, Cage later rewrote the piece for organ, so that notes could be sustained longer. After his death in 1992, a group of townsfolk from Halberstadt, Germany asked the question "What would be 'as slow as possible'?" The answer was to use the entire life of the instrument to play the song once. So, in September 2001, a pipe organ built in an old monastery began to play As Slow As Possible, as slowly as possible. This four page composition will be performed over 639 years. Notes are sustained over long periods of time, and every few years, at the hands of humans, and according to the score, the notes are changed. In facing his own moment of 'one thing giving away to another' Ryan's desire was to travel to Halberstadt to find the organ, and see what a note change could mean. What follows is part road movie, part meditation and part deliverance - led by someone trying to let go of a past identity, and embrace a new one.