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Benita review
After Benita Raphan took her own life in 2021, director and friend Berliner spent years poring over her unfinished work to create a documentary unlike anything else
TL;DR
- Alan Berliner completed a documentary using the unfinished work of filmmaker Benita Raphan.
- Raphan, the subject of the film, died by suicide in 2021.
- The documentary explores Raphan's artistic spirit, originality, and kindness.
- Raphan was known for her experimental documentaries and taught at the School of Visual Arts.
- She had a background in photography, graphic design, and was influenced by the downtown post-punk scene.
- Raphan was deeply devoted to her rescue dogs and was planning a film about canine cognition.
- Friends and Berliner speculate that isolation during Covid-19, combined with depression and anxiety, contributed to her death.
- The film is a tribute and a portrait of a complex, creative woman.
- The film is showing at Bertha DocHouse, London from June 24.