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The Rare Event

Forum Expanded 2018
Shot in a creaky, wooden-floored Parisian recording studio at an inaugural three-day “forum of ideas” focusing on the manifold possibilities of “Resistance” (the title of Jean-François Lyotard’s unrealized follow-up exhibition to his 1983 “Les Immateriaux”), occasional collaborators Ben Rivers and Ben Russell have produced what initially appears to be a structuralist document of a philosophical discussion in-the-round. This “appearance dimension” is deceptive, of course, and with the aid of an immersive 5.1 sound-mix, a Green Man, a Green-Man-shaped-Infinite-Void, a dose of kinetic digital magic (courtesy of US-based artist Peter Burr), and an impressive cast of thinkers, critics, curators, and artists, a document of Resistance slowly transforms into The Rare Event – a portal that joins all dimensions into one.
by Ben Rivers, Ben Russell
with Tuomo Tuovinen, Etienne Balibar, Federico Campagna, Manthia Diawara, Timothy Morton, Jean-Luc Nancy, Elizabeth Povinelli, Gayatri Spivak, Dorothea Van Hantelman Switzerland / France / United Kingdom 2018 English, French 48’ Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Tuomo Tuovinen (Green Man)
  • Etienne Balibar
  • Federico Campagna
  • Manthia Diawara
  • Timothy Morton
  • Jean-Luc Nancy
  • Elizabeth Povinelli
  • Gayatri Spivak
  • Dorothea Van Hantelman

Crew

Directors Ben Rivers, Ben Russell
Cinematography Ben Rivers, Ben Russell
Editing Ben Rivers, Ben Russell
Sound Design Philippe Ciompi
Sound Philippe Ciompi
Producers Luz Gyalui, Ben Rivers, Ben Russell
Commissioned by LUMA Foundation

Produced by

Luma Foundation

Ben Rivers

Ben Rivers, born in 1972, is an award-winning artist and filmmaker. His films have been exhibited worldwide at numerous galleries and festivals. Between 1995 and 2005 he co-programmed the Brighton Cinematheque. He is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. After A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013) this is his second collaboration with Ben Russell.

Filmography

2003 Old Dark House 2004 We The People 2005 The Hyrcynium Wood · The Bomb with a Man in his Shoe 2006 This Is My Land · Astika · The Coming Race · Terror! 2007 Dove Coup · House 2008 Ah, Liberty! · Sørdal · Origin of the Species · A World Rattled Of Habit 2009 May Tomorrow Shine The Brightest Of All Your Many Days As It Will Be Your Last · I Know Where I’m Going 2010 Slow Action 2011 Sack Barrow · Two Years At Sea 2012 The Creation As We Saw It · Phantoms of a Libertine 2013 A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness; 96 min., with Ben Russell 2014 Things 2015 A Distant Episode · The Sky Trembles and The Earth is Afraid and The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers · What Means Something · There Is A Happy Land Further Awaay 2016 The Hunchback; 29 min., with Gabriel Abrantes · The Shape of Things · Urth 2018 The Rare Event

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018

Ben Russell

© Jakov Munizaba

The artist and filmmaker was born in the USA in 1976 and is currently based in Marseille, France. His works focus on the intersection between ethnography and psychedelia and has been presented around the world. He was an exhibiting artist at documenta 14 in 2017 and his work has already been shown at the Berlinale several times, most recently in 2018 with The Rare Event in Forum Expanded.

Filmography (selection)

2009 Let Each One Go Where He May 2010 Trypps #1-7 2011 Austerity Measures; short film, co-director: Guillaume Cailleau 2013 A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness; co-director: Ben Rivers 2016 He Who Eats Children 2017 Good Luck; documentary 2018 The Rare Event; co-director: Ben Rivers 2021 The Invisible Mountain 2024 DIRECT ACTION; co-director: Guillaume Cailleau

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024