Artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers creates intimate portrayals of solitary beings or isolated communities, using a documentary style as a starting point from which to imagine alternative narratives and existences in marginal worlds.
Ben Rivers’s new feature film Mare’s Nest follows a young girl called Moon, who travels through a mysterious world free of adults. The film is currently touring the South West and will be shown at several cinemas in Cornwall in the days leading up to Rivers’s visit to Helston.
For this special evening at CAST, Ben Rivers has put together a selection of exceptional and rarely seen short films (including one of his own) that reflect on childhood experiences in different ways. He will introduce the films and there will be an opportunity for questions following the screenings.
The House is Black, 1963 – Forugh Farrokhzad (22 min)
Ah, Liberty!, 2008 – Ben Rivers (19 min)
The Horse, 1973 – Charles Burnett (14 min)
The House is Black is the only film directed by the noted feminist poet Forugh Farrokhzad and has been credited as being a forerunner of the Iranian New Wave. The film features footage from the Bababaghi Hospice leper colony, creating a picture of an enclosed and restricted society. Farrokhzad’s narration includes quotes from the Old Testament and the Qur’an, as well as her own poetry. After shooting this film she adopted a child from the colony, her son Hossein.
Shot in a remote area of Scotland, Ah Liberty! portrays a family’s place in the wilderness, outside of time – featuring free-range animals and children, junk and nature, all within a sublime landscape. The work aims at an idea of freedom, reflected in the hand-processed Scope format, which is undercut by a sense of foreboding. There’s no particular story, beginning, middle or end, just fragments of lives lived, rituals performed.
Director Charles Burnett has described The Horse as a ‘kind of allegory of the South’. Made whilst the acclaimed filmmaker was still a student, this short film follows a young African American boy on the farm of a white family, as he keeps a horse during its last moments of life. The Horse offers a lyrical and poignant portrayal, contrasting the callousness of adults with the empathy of children.
Ben Rivers was born in Somerset, and studied at Falmouth School of Art in the 1990s. He now lives and works in London. He led the third Cornwall Workshop, organised with Lux and held at Kestle Barton in 2016.
Mare’s Nest will be shown at the Verdant Taproom, Penryn on Tuesday 22 September, The Regal, Redruth on Thursday 24 September, The Ritz, Penzance on Tuesday 29 September, and The Poly, Falmouth on Wednesday 30 September.
CAST’s Artist Choice events begin with a convivial supper at CAST Café. Tickets include a delicious vegetarian or vegan main and dessert. Service is from the counter and drinks are available to purchase. When everyone has finished eating someone from CAST’s team will invite you to move through to our black box screening space for the introduction and screening.