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Ryan Betschart

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

Tropical Fractals
N/A

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

2026
The Sacred Mushroom Edition (For Kenneth Anger, by way of Kuchar)
N/A

An ode to the 1978 version of Kenneth Anger's film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (dubbed The Sacred Mushroom Edition) and it's peculiar use of Electric Light Orchestra's album El Dorado over images of a ritual orgy between gods, The Sacred Mushroom Edition (2016) finds two fallen angels arguing over ELO and their lead singer Jeff Lynne's affiliated supergroup The Traveling Wilburys - and his connection to the dark side.

The Sacred Mushroom Edition (For Kenneth Anger, by way of Kuchar)

2017
And I Arise (Reprise)
N/A

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)

2025
The Mandela Effect
N/A

A man with an orange face is in a position of power which we believe has something to do with parallel time lines. On August 23rd, 2012, a post titled “Berenstein Bears: We Are Living in Our Own Parallel Universe” was published on the blog The Wood Between Worlds, which described a widespread memory of the children’s book series Berenstein Bears as “Berenstain,” explaining the false memory as the result of an alternate reality spilling over into our own. Shot on VHS, recorded off a monitor, sound on cassette.

The Mandela Effect

2018
Pudding
N/A

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

2015
The Second Body
N/A

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

2020
No image
N/A

DIY, glitch art, punk rock, VHS // Cassette Tape look into life, death, and the importance of journaling.

Before She Leaves Her Body

婦人 (Fujin)
N/A

婦人 (Fujin) /foo-jeen/ noun/plural noun, can be translated as a more formal or polite way to refer to a woman, such as “lady” or “madam” and in some contexts can mean “sisterhood” or “womenfolk.” This footage of my great-grandmother and aunties getting ready for a night out is a glimpse into femininity and womanhood among aging Indigenous Asian women, free of the western ethnographic gaze that has haunted many portrayals of bodies of color.

婦人 (Fujin)

2020
Cup of Stars
N/A

A vivid tableau of tenderness, Cup of Stars finds two brothers under a cool night sky, fishing for stars and supernovas. Using dream logic under their own bizarre terms, The Betschart Bros. subtly express through a smearing of light and the telling of folk tales, ideas of growing up as siblings in Southern California.

Cup of Stars

2015
Towards the Experimental Control of Dreaming
N/A

A visual prose poem on a missed encounter during a brief period of altered states of consciousness.

Towards the Experimental Control of Dreaming

2018
There Must Be a Safe Space to Load the Building Materials
N/A

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

2018
kino lau: many bodies
N/A

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

2024
Paper Chase
N/A

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

2016
An Example of Lee-Roth Fog, Isolated Under Laboratory Conditions
N/A

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

2022
Sun Sonification
N/A

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

2021
Cousins
N/A

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

2021
Girl Becomes Snow
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A VHS rendition of what happens when we die - an investigation into death induced dream ephemera or; a body (mind) dissolves into video signal memories.

Girl Becomes Snow

2017
Zablah
N/A

A fever dream of anti-boomer angst told through disjointed and aggressive sound, picture and edit; Zablah demon baby boomer seeks to convince a millennial that eating at Applebee's is a worthwhile experience.

Zablah

2018
Operation Wandering Soul ////////// Ghost Tape Number 10
N/A

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

2025
A Theory of /Cloud/
N/A

A remix of James Benning's Ten Skies

A Theory of /Cloud/

2025