Ben Rivers
Ben RIVERS (1972, UK) is an artist and filmmaker. His body of work has been exhibited worldwide at numerous galleries and festivals. He was educated at the Falmouth School of Art and was co-founder and programmer of the Brighton Cinematheque (1995-2005). His first feature film, Two Years at Sea (2011), won the FIPRESCI Award in Venice. In Rotterdam, Rivers won a Tiger Award for Short Films twice: in 2008 with Ah Liberty! and in 2015 with Things. At present, he is affiliated with Harvard University, where he will be working on an ethnographic film. In 2015, Rivers’ film The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers premiered at Locarno. Krabi, 2562, co-directed with Anocha Suwichakornpong, screens at IFFR 2020.
Filmography
(selection) Old Dark House (2003, short), We the People (2004, short), The Hyrcynium Wood (2005, short), The Bomb with a Man in His Shoe (2005, short), This Is My Land (2006, short doc), Astika (2006, short), The Coming Race (2006, short), Terror! (2006, short), Greenhouse (2007, short), Dove Coup (2007, short), House (2007, short), Ah, Liberty! (2008, short), Sørdal (2008, short), Origin of the Species (2008, short doc), A World Rattled of Habit (2008, short), May Tomorrow Shine the Brightest of All Your Many Days As It Will Be Your Last (2009, short), I Know Where I’m Going (2009, short), Slow Action (2011, short), Sack Barrow (2011, short), Two Years at Sea (2011), The Creation As We Saw It (2012, short), Phantoms of a Libertine (2012, short), A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013, co-dir), Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget (2013, short), Things (2014, short), The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (2015), Krabi, 2562 (2019, co-dir), Look Then Below (2019)
Ben Rivers at IFFR
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Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget
Playing with anthropological film conventions. Priests on a Pacific island carry out rituals based on the prophecies of messiah John Frum.
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A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
We follow a man during three seemingly separate periods in his life: as a member of a commune, isolated in the wilderness and as a singer/guitarist at
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The Coming Race
A hint of mystery covers these and hand developed shots of lines of mountain climbers on their way to… well, where are they going?
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This Is My Land
A folk film for the new millennium. A hand processed portrait of a loner in rural Scotland.
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Astika
Circumspect portrait of a rough loner on the Danish island who has led his farm run wild for 15 years.
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Harrachov
As if attracted by a black hole, objects come to life in this combination of live action and animation. The machine can be seen in the RAM Gallery. No
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Origin of the Species
Existentialist portrait by former Tiger Short winner of a man who lives with his obsession for Darwin in self-imposed isolation.
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