Therese Henningsen

Ben Rivers' films study the otherworldly, looking for places and stories outside the daily conventions of reality. Look Then Below was filmed in a Somerset transformed into a coloured, mist-enveloped island in an oily ocean with a cave basking in a subterranean glow. Time seems to stand still there. After Slow Action and Urth, this is the final part of a trilogy developed with American SF author Mark von Schlegell.

Ten Londoners and a dog. They dance together, steal together, eat together; agree and disagree, celebrate their differences and share their talents. They spark a debate about the world we live in, who has stolen what from whom, and how things might be fixed.

What kind of presence is made possible by the cinematic encounter? With the camera as an intermediary, an artist punches a hole in the wall that separates her responsibilities as a filmmaker from her role as a daughter.

You’ve got something I want. All good comes to he who waits. I always wait… Nothing ever comes my way. My nephew, he’s a millionaire. My sister’s husband’s a millionaire. My other nephew, he’s a millionaire. And my cousin, she’s a millionaire. You know, just because we get older we don’t stop wanting those things.

Throughout June 2022 ‘The Lock-In’, Stanley Schtinter's 96 hour edit of all the scenes shot inside BBC soap opera EastEnders' Queen Vic pub (1985-1995), played on the television screens of ten 'real' pubs across London's East End. Filmed only on the occasion of these screenings, After Time documents the people and pubs that survive in East London today.