
Ryan Betschart
Directing
Biography
Ryan is co-director and head curator of San Diego Underground Film Festival (MovieMaker Magazine Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee), has programmed for Slamdance Film Festival, has taught Adjunct at CalArts, and is currently a Lecturer at UC San Diego in the Cinematic Arts Program. His films have screened at Fantasia, Slamdance, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Porto Post/Doc, Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Desert Daze, and have won awards at Slamdance, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Indie Memphis, Arizona Underground. His band Shrine Maiden's album And I Arise was named one the Top 10 Experimental Albums of 2020 by Outtallectuals zine. Their 4th album is due out October 31st 2025 on Whited Sepulchre Records. Ryan holds an MFA in Film/Video from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and a BA in Visual Art from UC San Diego.
Known For

Music video for Shrine Maiden. To the west I rise To the east I sleep I pull the tides - And again, repeat And Again repeat - And again repeat I fall, i rise - like this reprise - And again - And again - And again i rise And again i rise - And again i rise No need to speak - a loop, a vow - and slow repeat - And again And again And again - I fall i rise - like this reprise And again we rise I wax, I wane - I fall, i rise like this refrain - Just the same And It’s just the same I fall, i rise - like this reprise - the night replies - and all we are - is this disguise - is this disguise So Rise and fall Again - with me Again with me
And I Arise (Reprise)

On an interstellar journey, a group of scientists studies the last living vestiges of Earth. The artificial intelligence, Museo, becomes a portal to the crew’s diaries and a fragmented archive of humanity. On Earth, the one believed to be the last of the humans traverses a ruined planet that is slowly recovering, little by little, from the apocalypse it endured.
Tropical Fractals

Interpretation of a dream I had building a house with stock animation and Migos stuck in my head. Central to my dream was the worry: Is there a Safe Space to Load the Building Materials?? There must be.
There Must Be a Safe Space to Load the Building Materials

A tribute to Diamond Dave, done as an experimental doc about a rare natural phenomenon
An Example of Lee-Roth Fog, Isolated Under Laboratory Conditions

A rumination on the passive politics of whiteness. My character's own flippant attitude towards the mention of racial injustice is both a nod towards the ignorance of white youth and the begging of the question - if I had known, would I have cared beyond a shallow verbal support of the oppressed? A hard day at the pool and the call to dinner being my siren song - an invitation to wash my hands literally and figuratively - guilty thoughts running down the drain, making room for a never ending beach party summer.
Sun Sonification

My God, Divine Creator! Don't let me find a watery grave!
A Storm at Sea

I have seen I have heard I have felt The splendor Of the rain The shimmer Of the mist I’ve gone to where only cloud and sea are seen
Ua 'ike au

False Expectations is a 3-channel 16mm expanded cinema with a scored live noise performance by Shrine Maiden. Finding and preserving memories of connections and tenderness in dead flowers, in between blinds, slants of shadows and hand processed film frames.
False Expectations

A music video for the glitch-hop horrorcore group blackhandpath. A digital collision; a burst of data aggression. Scan lines for the future.
Paper Chase

It's been a long day, and you're tired. You come home, nearly doze off in front of the television set, then wander down the hall and plop on your bed expecting to fall asleep in a instant. But - suddenly and mysteriously - you find yourself paralyzed. Gushing sounds fill your ears. Bright flashes of light flicker under your closed eyelids. Then you feel as if you are beginning to float... The second film in our tribute to the late parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo, murdered in 1990 under mysterious circumstances.
The Second Body

In an attempt to use mirror divination, a spirit appears as a clever creature during the year of the rabbit.
kāua - we (you and i)

An exploration into Astral Projection via my diagnosis of Exploding Head Syndrome. May Sinclair's 1912 novella about a psychic healer's distress over personal depletion when helping clients informs my research of the late parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo's life's work in mapping astral projection techniques; these techniques serve as guideposts for my own personal journey in understanding my nightly EHS haltions.
The Flaw in the Crystal

A visual prose poem on a missed encounter during a brief period of altered states of consciousness.
Towards the Experimental Control of Dreaming

kino lau: many bodies is a performance of live music and projections that aims to bridge the ancient and the contemporary, the tangible and the ethereal, creating a multisensory journey that resonates with diverse and modern audiences. This immersive experience is a harmonious convergence of two distinct artistic forms: magic lantern projections and ambient drone metal merged with traditional Hawaiian chants.
kino lau: many bodies

Pudding describes through auditory and visual wonder two children exploring their body curiosity through the telling of false memories regarding 1970's pop icons.
Pudding

A meditation on the false promise of present day anti racist initiatives. How can two "Night skaters" be seen if no one puts them on camera?
Cousins
DIY, glitch art, punk rock, VHS // Cassette Tape look into life, death, and the importance of journaling.
Before She Leaves Her Body

At a seance, an American war vet upset over his daughters suicide is tricked by con artists who end up playing him a tape of his own war crimes, triggering him to take his life.
Operation Wandering Soul ////////// Ghost Tape Number 10

In 1990 parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo, an expert in the study of astral projection and an accomplished oboe player, was murdered in his Northridge home. The crime remains unsolved.
A Collection of Attempts in Astral Travel

An ode to the Beast; who was felt strongly during the 1970s, when Americans had idle time for metaphysical inquiry, as benefit from the racism of their forefathers, in turn setting in motion an attempt towards a mass liberation of consciousness, which, succumbing to arrogance, unsuccessfully bid to help remove the psychological chains imposed upon others, chains which were the genesis of the aforementioned teenage thought liberation. A feedback loop of failed promises inherited by lies.