Sack Barrow by Ben Rivers

UK (2011) - Spectrum Shorts

Ben Rivers is a British director whose style can be recognised by several characteristics. He always shoots on 16mm film, and has a knack of mixing fiction and documentary in a subtle, innovative and playful way. His latest film Sack Barrow demonstrates some aesthetic departures from his style, most notably the use of a TV aspect ratio instead of the cinemascope, and vivid instead of washed-out colors.

The film focuses on the daily routines of the workers of metal factory Servex Ltd. There is no particular story line here, nor are there any dialogues. The goal is not to tell the story about the place, but to immerse the audience in its atmosphere: the vivid colors, details of mineral crust on the machines, and smiling faces of pin-up girls from the porno-magazines on the wall.

Although very rhythmical and with a subtle sense of humour, the film possesses a strong notion of melancholia, and as the credits start rolling we find out that the factory was in fact closed last year, after 80 years of its existence. The qualities of the 16mm film, its grainy texture and the capacity of its emulsion to absorb colors, as well as the retro TV-aspect ratio are the only hints that suggest that we are witnessing the last breaths of a world already gone.

In a time when there is much talk about the death of analogue film, filmmakers like Ben Rivers demonstrate that the old medium hasn’t had its final word.

By Mario Kozina