2013 / digital / color / 98 min. (Estonia + France)
A SPELL follows an unnamed character through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in isolation in the majestic wilderness of Northern Finland; and during a concert as the singer and guitarist of a black metal band in Norway. Marked by loneliness, ecstatic beauty and an optimism of the darkest sort.
Studied Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art, initially in sculpture before moving into photography and super8 film. After his degree he taught himself 16mm filmmaking and hand-processing. His practice as a filmmaker treads a line between documentary and fiction. Often following and filming people who have in some way separated themselves from society, the raw film footage provides Rivers with a starting point for creating oblique narratives imagining alternative existences in marginal worlds. His films include: “I Know Where I’m Going” (09), “Ah, Liberty!” (08), “Slow Action” (10), “Two Years at Sea” (11)
Born in 1976, USA, Ben Russell is an itinerant media artist and curator whose films, installations, and performances foster a deep engagement with the history and semiotics of the moving image. Formal investigations of the historical and conceptual relationships between early cinema, visual anthropology, and structuralist filmmaking result in immersive experiences concerned at once with ritual, communal spectatorship and the pursuit of a “psychedelic ethnography.” His films include : “Daumë” (00), “Workers Leaving the Factory (Dubai)” (08), “Let Each One Go Where He May” (09), “River Rites” (11), “Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget” (13)
Tokyo Image Forum：4/27 21:05
Tokyo Park Tower：5/1 18:45
Kyoto：5/17 14:30
Nagoya：6/22 15:20
