The Ground (1993–2001) by Robert Beavers

Friday, February 6, 2026, 7:00 pm

Robert Beavers: Filmmaker in Residence Program 6

In Conversation: Robert Beavers and Susan Oxtoby

BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE
2155 Center St
Berkeley

Presented in association with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Admission: $18 General / $12 Cinematheque Members
Event tickets here

Robert Beavers: Filmmaker in Residence
January 30 – February 7, 2026 

This career retrospective, combined with a filmmaker residency, offers Bay Area audiences a chance to see American avant-garde filmmaker Robert Beavers’ highly rewarding body of work and engage with him as an artist. His films are exceptional for their visual beauty, aural texture, and depth of emotional expression.

Born in 1949 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Beavers began to make films in the mid-1960s in New York City. By the end of that decade, he had relocated to Europe with fellow American filmmaker Gregory J. Markopoulos, who would be his lifelong companion until Markopoulos’ death in 1992. The majority of Beavers’s films were shot in the 1970s and 1980s in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Greece. Between 1994 and 2002, the artist involved himself in reediting the images and creating new soundtracks for his eighteen-film cycle, My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure.

Beavers’ films embody the ideals of the Renaissance in their fascination with perception, psychology, literature, the natural world, architectural space, musical phrasing and aesthetic beauty. For many years now, Beavers has made Berlin his home with fellow filmmaker Ute Aurand. BAMPFA will present seven films he has made since 2007, which continue his exploration of sense of place, reflection and harmony. (Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator; BAMPFA)

This series is co-presented by the UC Berkeley Department of German, with support from the Mosse Foundation. Thanks also to the Townsend Center for the Humanities.

Robert Beavers: Filmmaker in Residence
1   2   3   4   5   Lecture   6   7

Robert Beavers: Program 6
In Conversation: Robert Beavers and Susan Oxtoby

Shot in Rome, The Hedge Theater is inspired by the Baroque architecture and stone carvings of Francesco Borromini and St. Martin and the Beggar, a painting by the Sienese artist Il Sassetta. Robert Beavers contrasts the sensuous softness of winter light with the lush green growth brought by spring rains. The Stoas includes images of the deserted industrial arcades (stoas) of Athens during siesta and the refreshing waters of a bountiful river. A recurring shot of the filmmaker’s hands outstretched, as if holding something that is not there, is the only literal human element in the film. The Ground uses seemingly simple components—the sunbaked landscape of a Greek island, the blue waters of the Aegean Sea and images of a man chiseling stone—to conjure the fundamental experience of holding something close to one’s heart.

SCREENING:
The Hedge Theater (Italy; 1986–90/2002); 35mm, color, sound, 19 minutes. Print from the BAMPFA Collection.
The Stoas (Greece; 1991–97); 35mm, color, sound, 22 minutes. Print from the BAMPFA Collection.
The Ground (Greece; 1993–2001); 35mm, color, sound, 20 minutes. Print from the BAMPFA Collection.
TRT: 61 mins