Main programme  

A man called Jake lives in the middle of the forest. He goes for walks whatever the weather, and takes naps in the misty fields and woods. He builds a raft so that he can spend his time sitting in a loch. He sleeps in a caravan that is floating up in a tree. He is seen in all seasons, surviving frugally, passing the time with strange projects, living the radical dream he had as a younger man, a dream he spent two years working at sea to realise.

Festivals and Awards

Fipresci Prize, Venice Film Festival, 2011
Grand Prix, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, 2011

Ben Rivers

Born in 1972, contemporary experimental film maker and artist Ben Rivers lives and works in London. His work has been shown in many film festivals and galleries throughout the world, and won numerous awards. His practice as a filmmaker treads a line between documentary and fiction. Often following and filming people who have in some way separated themselves from society, the raw film footage provides Rivers with a starting point for creating oblique narratives imagining alternative existences in marginal worlds. Rivers uses near-antique cameras and hand develops the 16mm film, which shows all the evidence of the elements it has been exposed to – the materiality of this medium forming part of the narrative. Two Years at Sea is his first feature length film.