A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
“A beautifully shot and moving elegy.”
Paul Hobson, Director Modern Art Oxford.
Marginalia | song to the river is a film that explores the river and its wildlife in a time of increasing land pressure and climate change.
Through poetry, song and statement this film asks us who we are and how we fit into the dynamic of our surroundings and nature.
The film features the commissioned poem Isis written by Penny Boxall with additional contributions from Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente, Jonathan Westaway and Lukas Krone. They discuss the environments lost to climate change, the river as a breathing, moving super organism and the deep sense of obligation astronauts have about conservation on returning to earth.
The music for the film was composed by Alex Smalley and Alex Lucas with the choral elements sung by the Choir of Merton College, Oxford.
Marginalia | song to the river was filmed as part of Merton College's Creative Arts Fellowship between October 2023 and August 2024 along a section of the Thames upstream from Oxford with additional elements filmed at Merton College, Oxford.
The blog was written as an ongoing commentary on the making of Marginalia | song to the river and mapped the various stages of production drawing parallels between the current film industry and film history.
Commissioned by the Barbican and The Space as part of Digital Revolution.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Two fearless innovators, musical pioneer John Cale and technology storyteller Liam Young, transformed the Barbican’s Theatre with a brand new audio-visual collaboration.
In a film by Bevis Bowden, meet the creators of this innovative new work and learn more about the making of the drone orchestra.
"This is a beautiful piece of work. It's full of craft and visual beauty, and exudes a real sensitivity to the project. John and Liam's dynamic and the words they say are very strong; I particularly like the interview 2-shot, but also the moments where Bevis is in the pit and has Liam framed in the foreground and John on the stage behind. You get a real sense of their partnership. The film feels like (because it is) a compelling piece of art in its own right and the photography is just first-rate. So many rich, meaningful vignettes. I could write rather a long email singling out many, many wonderful touches, but that would take rather a while!”
Sidd Khajuria, Senior Producer at the Barbican.
Article | John Cale: a Futurespective
Other films made with John Cale: Dyddiau Du / Dark Days
The Wild Tour premiered at the Hinterlands Film Festival.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
In May 2021, Daniel Bye and Boff Whalley set off from Northam Burrows, on Devon's north coast.
They aimed to run 120 miles to the south coast, finishing in Dartmouth.
They stopped along the way in fields, farm yards, chapels, barns and orchards, to perform their show These Hills Are Ours.
This is the story of what they found - about the relationship between wild and controlled, about land ownership and about how far we are prepared to go for what we believe in.
The Wild Tour was a celebration of everything we'd all been unable to do over the past year: perform live, sing together, and run in places too wild to be accessible from our front doors.
It's a comeback tour with a difference.
“The Wild Tour may at face value seem to be a film about the rewards of fell running and the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other to cover ground - but just as the two main runners in it encounter many landscapes along the way, so too the audience is led into numerous different territories. It soon becomes clear that we are being drawn into a moving meditation on political engagement, human encounter and, ultimately, the enduring power of friendship. There is certainly real rural beauty presented with great care here, though the weather cuts vicious as often as it shines fair, and there is a bite to the film that lingers long after the final destination is reached.”
Geoff A Bird, Radio Producer | Writer | Artistic Director
The music from The Wild Tour is available to buy on a 48 page booklet and 8-song CD from No Masters Records.
Other films made with Daniel Bye include: As if our lives depended on it | Learning to Fly (Again) | A song for Clougha Pike | A song for Roseberry Topping
Directed by Richard Shaw
Produced by Unity House for Sky Arts
The series is presented by art expert Kate Bryan and profiles exhibitions of every size - from marque shows at internationally renowned venues to smaller exhibitions in beautiful, intimate gallery spaces.
Inside Art celebrates the UK arts scene, talks to curator, artists and art lovers, and explores the stories behind the artwork.
FILMED BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Art expert Kate Bryan explores an exhibition that explores the relationship between club culture and design, traversing the globe and spanning the 1960s to the present day.
Art expert Kate Bryan explores the exhibition Masterpieces From Buckingham Palace in The Queens Gallery, with works by Titian, Rembrandt and more.
Art expert Kate Bryan looks at a unique body of British and Irish art dedicated to self-portraiture, consisting of the very best work of the twentieth-century and more contemporary pieces.
Art expert Kate Bryan presents a behind the scenes look at a major exhibition of Linda McCartney's iconic photography at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Produced by ARC, Stockton Arts Centre.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Written and Performed by Daniel Bye
In this meditation on illness and recovery, writer Daniel Bye returns to run on a favourite hill after a long period sidelined by chronic illness.
Music by Chequerboard
“Some of the most beautiful winter landscapes I’ve seen. The use of repetition, his poetic and simplistic notion of gravity and the palindromic structure just feels super smart.”
Gavin Bowden, Award Winning Commercials and Music Video Director
Other films made with Daniel Bye: As if our lives depended on it | The Wild Tour | A song for Clougha Pike | A song for Roseberry Topping
Creative Wales Award | Commissioned by the Arts Council of Wales.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Informed by the everyday labours of working farm life, Fleece Painting is a film about the work of the artist Paul Emmanuel whose painting practice is embedded in the hills of the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales. The film features the artist Richard Higlett in conversation with Paul.
Inspired by local farmer’s use of coloured sheep marker Paul Emmanuel’s paintings use sheared fleece, sourced from local upland flocks.
He then applies paint directly to the fleece.
Filmed in the Brecon Beacons, south Wales.
Music by Olan Mill.
“Making a film about an artist is always challenging; communicating the soul and visceral impact of three dimensional work is a difficult act. In Fleece Painting Bevis Bowden has got straight to the heart of Paul Emmanuel’s inspiration and the articulation of his materials. In a thoroughly grounded film he totally nails the artist and his art.
On exhibition the film was an integral part of the gallery experience. Our audience enjoyed it immensely.”
Philip Hughes MBE, Director, Ruthin Craft Centre
Directed by Sally Howard
Produced by TILT Design, London.
Filmed in the Wadi Rum, Jordan.
CLIMBING SEQUENCES FILMED BY BEVIS BOWDEN | GROUND SEQUENCES FILMED BY MARTIN TESTAR
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A Palace for Us will screen as part of the Hackney History Festival on the 6th May 2025.
Commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery.
Artist: Tom Hunter
"This is a magical film. It weaves the memories of people who grew up in East London and have lived on the estate since it opened into a silvery thread of meaning illuminated by dramatisations of their experiences filmed in the aged, but dignified Woodberry Down buildings and public spaces."
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
Article | review by Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
DRAMA SEQUENCES FILMED BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Produced by ARC, Stockton Arts Centre.
A FILM BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Creative Director Daniel Bye
A group of fell runners play out a thrilling game that brings centuries-old manhunting adventures into the climate crisis era.
Music by Nick Franglen
Other films made with Daniel Bye: Learning to Fly (Again) | The Wild Tour | A song for Clougha Pike | A song for Roseberry Topping
Listen to Daniel Bye by on Gary Thwaites Tea & Trails podcast talk about the film at 1 hour 31 minutes 35 seconds.
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Commissioned by the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam.
Artist: Susan Stockwell
The film explores the sculpture Territory Dress and juxtaposes it with archival film of past seafaring imagery. It is as if the figure is remembering her history and making imaginary connections. Concerned with claiming female territory, mapping the body and exploring memories, traces and stories of colonial and social histories both the film and sculpture are about our colonial past and its contemporary significance.
Music by Rafael Anton Irisarri.
Article | Elephant: The British Artist Tackling the Long, Dark Shadow of Colonialism
Territory Dress is in the Tropenmuseum’s permanent exhibition Our Colonial Inheritance.
FILMED AND EDITED BY BEVIS BOWDEN
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Commissioned by SRG SSR, Swiss TV broadcaster.
Artist: Melanie Manchot
Six two minute programmes were commissioned to accompany the daily coverage of the World Cup Ski Jumping Championships in Engelberg, Switzerland as an 'intervention' to the daily national TV coverage of the event.
The films were shot and edited in a single day and then aired on consecutive days of the championships.
This selection of programmes gives an insight into the preparations of the inrun and the cutting of the ski tracks, the team who look after the ski jump hill, the pre-jump preparations of the ski jumpers and Abbot Christian draws parallels between the act of jumping and higher interventions.
FILMED AND EDITED BY BEVIS BOWDEN
Other films made with Melanie Manchot: Stephen (in part) | Flotilla | Cornered Star | Out of Bounds | The Gift | Twelve | Tracer | Dance (All Night) Paris | Walk (Square)
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Commissioned by the Barbican.
STRAVINSKY’S PETRUSHKA
Go Beyond the Concert Hall promotional films highlighted the Barbican's innovative ongoing classical music programme and was part of the Barbican’s rebranding programme.
The excerpt shows Stravinsky’s Petrushka performed by the genre-bending production company Giants Are Small with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
FILMED AND EDITED BY BEVIS BOWDEN
