© Ben Rivers
Screening
CODEX
Ben Rivers film cycle
Sunday 19 November 2023 • 2:30 PM
Jeu de Paume – Paris
With an introduction by author Chloe Aridjis. With Ben Rivers and Antoine Thirion.
films screened
Ah, Liberty!
2008, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 20 mins, original version, French subtitles
A Distant Episode
2015, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 18 mins
Sørdal
2008, 16 mm, colour, silent, 7 mins
We the People
2004, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 1 min
The House Was Quiet
2020, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 5 mins, original version, French subtitles
Old Dark House
2003, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 4 mins
The Hyrcynium Wood
2003, 16 mm, black and white, sound, 3 mins
Ah, Liberty! observes a family in the wilderness, outside of time, with animals and children roaming freely, amongst junk and nature, and set against a sublime landscape. The use of the CinemaScope format, developed by hand, reinforces the feeling of freedom, tinged with anxiety which emanates from all of the films on this programme. This particular film veers towards fantasy cinema and horror films: remains from the setting of an adaptation by Knut Hamsun in the Norwegian wilderness, haunted houses, echoes of a crowd demanding a lynching, and the making of a Shezad Dawood film transformed into a strange document of the future.