BENITA, A Film by Alan Berliner
Part archival portrait, part elegy, Alan Berliner’s BENITA transforms the tragic death of filmmaker Benita Raphan into a meditation on mental health and the enduring power of art and creative expression
World Premiere at DOC NYC, Nov. 14 and 16
Berliner will be in person for post-screening Q&As
BENITA is Alan Berliner's intimate portrait of New York City filmmaker, Benita Raphan, who took her life by suicide in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Benita made several beautiful short films over the years – including portraits of Emily Dickinson, John Nash and Buckminster Fuller – exploring the relationship between mental health, innovation and creativity. BENITA will make its World Premiere in the Special Presentation program at DOC NYC. The feature documentary screens on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7:00 p.m. ET at IFC Center and Sunday, November 14 at 11:30 a.m. ET at Village East by Angelika. Berliner will be in person for post-screening Q&As at both events. For tickets, click here.
Benita may not have left behind a suicide note, but Berliner patiently explored her personal archive, filled with films, out-takes, notebooks, drawings, photographs, home movies and more than 40 hard drives, eventually making a surprising discovery that changed his understanding of Benita's life, her work, and her death. Part anatomy of a suicide and part personal history of a life thrown off-balance by the extreme isolation of Covid, BENITA is the portrait of a filmmaker by a filmmaker that's also a film about filmmaking.
Having been the creative advisor on several of Benita’s films, Benita thought of Berliner as a mentor. “In the aftermath of her death, I was haunted by the realization that while I may have known the celebrations and struggles of Benita’s film career, I had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes. In retrospect, I now see that everything we worked on contained hints of Benita’s emotional turmoil and the depth of her pain,” said Berliner.
“Benita’s family asked if I’d be willing to finish the film Benita had been working on when she died. I told them that even though I’d worked with her for years, I could never duplicate the mystery and beauty that Benita always brought to her work,” said Berliner. Instead Berliner set out to create a unique portrait of Benita that became an experiment in collaboration between filmmaker and subject. “As much as I was making a film about Benita, I was also making a film with her. My aim was to give Benita a unique presence (a voice) inside the film, allowing her personality, her character, and her spirit to shine through, even amidst the darkness of her struggles.”
Alan Berliner’s uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose and popular appeal in compelling film essays has made him one of America's most acclaimed independent filmmakers. The New York Times has described Berliner's work as "powerful, compelling and bittersweet... full of juicy conflict and contradiction, innovative in their cinematic technique, unpredictable in their structures... Alan Berliner illustrates the power of fine art to transform life."
Described as a “virtuoso of essayistic documentary,” Alan Berliner was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at DOC NYC in 2024, a recognition of his innovative contributions to the field of documentary filmmaking. Berliner's films, “Letter to the Editor” (2019), “First Cousin Once Removed” (2013), “Wide Awake” (2006), “The Sweetest Sound” (2001), “Nobody’s Business” (1996), “Intimate Stranger” (1991), and “The Family Album” (1986), have been broadcast all over the world, and received awards, prizes, and retrospectives at many major international film festivals. Over the years, Berliner’s films have become part of the core curriculum for documentary filmmaking and film history classes at universities worldwide, and are in the permanent collections of many film societies, festivals, libraries, colleges and museums. All of his films are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Berliner is a recipient of Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Jerome Foundation Fellowships, and has received multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He’s won three Emmy Awards and received seven Emmy nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Credits
Directed, Produced, Written and Edited by Alan Berliner
In Collaboration with Benita Raphan
Documentary, 81 minutes, USA, English, Color, HD (16:9), Stereo and 5.1 Sound Mixes
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