The Sky Trembles . . .

May 3, 2016 · The Pilot Light · 7:30 p.m.

“In a cafe in Morocco, around 50 years ago, Paul Bowles overheard a man, high on kif, say the full title of this film, The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers. And so he wrote a story around this statement, a story that moves between different planes of reality. I read the story (“A Distant Episode“), and the story behind the story, and the strange phrase kept circling around my mind, creating images and dreams. This film is a manifestation of these images, along with obsessions about cinema and how far we will go to make it.” — Ben Rivers, 2015

“If auteurism exalts the filmmaker’s ability to bend the wayward elements of reality to his singular, personal vision, Rivers’ film suggests precisely the opposite: that cinema is a space for collaboration and collusion, however messy they may be.” — Leo Goldsmith, Cinema Scope

“Ben Rivers is an artist, an experimental film maker of acknowledged talent; this work forms the feature element of an installation first displayed at the BBC White City in the UK and now part of a museum collection at the Whitworth. And indeed, shot on hand-processed 16mm Cinemascope and transferred to 35mm for projection, this is pure art film at its undistilled essence.” — Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily

About the Filmmaker

Ben Rivers is a British artist and filmmaker using 16mm and hand-processing. His practice treads a line between documentary and fiction, often following and filming people who have in some way separated themselves from society. Notable works include: Two Years at Sea (’11), A Spell to Ward off Darkness (’13, co-directed with Ben Russell); This Is My Land (’06); Origin of the Species (’08); Ah, Liberty! (’08); I Know Where I’m Going (’09); Slow Action (’10); and Sack Barrow (’11).