Raising the Hare premiered at New Networks for Nature.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
"I thought I could almost see myself in the hare’s eye, it was that close.”
The Names of the Hare (written in the late thirteenth century) is attributed to a Shropshire family on the Welsh borders. It lists the 77 names you should say to a hare to avoid bad luck if you happen to come across one.
Raising the Hare describes one such encounter.
The film features two Welsh voices of the landscape - the musician John Cale (founding member of the Velvet Underground) who reads Seamus Heaney's translation of ‘The Names of the Hare’ and Fleece Painter Paul Emmanuel (Welsh Artist of the Year) who describes an encounter he had with a hare from horseback.
The film looks at the entanglement of encounter between a hare, a farmer and the livestock that coexist within a field.
Filmed in mid Wales.
Music by Olan Mill.
Selected for the International Festival of Ornithological Film of Menigoute and Arts à Bord.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
O LAPWING! thou fliest around the heath,
Nor seest the net that is spread beneath.
Why dost thou not fly among the corn fields?
They cannot spread nets where a harvest yields.
by William Blake.
The Lapwing Act 1926, preventing the large scale collection of eggs, reversed the Lapwings UK decline. However, more recent large scale changes in farming practice have further pressured numbers. With recent interventions, and the returning of land to a more natural state will the Lapwing recover to the numbers William Blake observed in his poem O LAPWING?
The Catcott Lows on the Somerset Levels is part of the largest wet meadow system in Britain and forms a part of the Avalon marshes. It is a landscape that is resolutely leaking back into its natural state. During the winter this landscape becomes the home to Lapwings and, the focus of my film.
As you stare across the waterlogged landscape and, watch the Lapwings flock, the origin of their name becomes evident - from the Old English hleapewince 'to leap and wink'. There are reverberations of the past here, the Tor at Glastonbury is a constant reminder of this.
Filmed at Catcott Nature Reserve, Somerset.
Music by Greg Haines.
"I could not recommend this lovely film more highly. Take out five minutes from the hurly burly and bring yourself some joy.
A truly stunning piece of filmmaking. If I could include it in my books of the year I would."
Mark Cocker, Author and Naturalist (Birds and People, Crow Country)
Commissioned for a large-scale projection to accompany a live John Adams musical retrospective.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Westhay Moor on the Somerset Levels is part of largest wet meadow system in Britain and forms part of the Avalon marshes. Even after years of draining and reclaiming it is still waterlogged. It is resolutely leaking back into its natural state.
I was there to hopefully see otters but on this occasion my attention was also drawn to a pair of Grebes. Over a period of time I watched the pair of Grebes build their second nest, their first had failed. Through a veil of rain the pair of Grebes tried again.
Filmed at Westhay Moor Nature Reserve, Somerset.
Music by John Adams.
Selected for Cannes Lions Festival.
Produced by OGILVY & MATHER, Singapore.
Artist: Tim Knowles.
Music composed by Nick Franglen.
"I love it. It's a seriously beautiful spot, I had to watch it again immediately. You consistently create a great introspective mood with simple compositions, which is no mean feat. You definitely have an eye for natural forces, which is evident in all your work.”
Gavin Bowden, Award Winning Commercials and Music Video Director
FILMED AND EDITED BY BEVIS BOWDEN
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Music promo to accompany the album Nothing Can Bring Back the Hour by Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker.
Exmoor is an ancient place, heavy with reverberations of the past. My glimpses of the natural world have been random and often haphazard. But what if you were stationary like a tree. What would you see? On this day the stag hunt passed.
Filmed on Exmoor.
Music by Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Official music promo to accompany the album Illusion of the Tale by Phaeleh.
The track to the old Rhosydd slate mine passes the abandoned Cwmorthin chapel. It was built for workers from the nearby slate quarries. This is certainly a place where you can believe there are greater powers at work.
"Just gorgeous Bevis."
John Cale
Filmed in north Wales.
Music by Phaeleh
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
"What are they hunting?"
The film mediates the experience of a family, the camera and the wildlife as participants of a landscape. This cats cradle, creates the film's torsion as each participant is entwined within the landscape's network.
The film has been made in response to the Somerset Wildlife Trust's campaign 'Rediscovering Somerset'.
Filmed at Westhay Moor Nature Reserve, Somerset.
Music by Gudula Rosa & Haruka Fujii.
"I saw your Westhay Moor film - the photography is just extraordinary - so beautiful to watch. You so obviously have a particular vision of nature and time."
Gavin Bowden, award winning commercials and music video Director
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Fleeting best describes my encounters with the natural history as I drive across the common. Whether it’s a glimpse of a Kestrel high above or a Fox moving along a hedge line these moving encounters, viewed through the lens of the car's windscreen, impose their own restraints of composition within the expanse of the landscape.
I always think of Gerard Manley Hopkins poem "The Windhover” when I frame the ecology against this landscape. Written in May, 1877 the poem begins with and takes its rhythmic expansiveness from a vividly observed Kestrel.
"High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing" Hopkins wrote.
Much like my car, perhaps he was describing the restraints and liberations of poetic composition?
Facing the Wind is an observation of the ecology along a journey.
Filmed in mid Wales.
Music by Nordic Affect.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
As the light begins to fade there is one final crescendo before nightfall hides it all.
Shapwick Heath on the Somerset Levels is the largest wet meadow system in Britain and forms a large part of the Avalon marshes. Humans have spent generations attempting to tip the balance. Years of draining and reclaiming but it is still waterlogged. It is resolutely leaking back into its natural state. It's a strange and haunting place with reverberations of the past.
Filmed at Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve, Somerset.
Music by John Lord.
Campaign commercial for San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy.
This was a derivative piece made from Dusk at Shapwick.
Music by John Adams.
"The conceptual precision of the piece is very powerful. There is something very poignant about your decision to look at ‘one frame’ with in the infinite possibility of nature and tell the story with that focus."
Melanie Manchot, Filmmaker and Photographer.
FILMED AND EDITED BY BEVIS BOWDEN