![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Benn Northover | |
---|---|
![]() Benn Northover (Photo by Andrew H. Walker) | |
Born | [1] Ipswich, Suffolk, England | 3 January 1981
Occupation(s) | Actor, artist |
Years active | 2002–present |
Benn Northover (born 3 January 1981) is an English-Irish actor, director and artist. [2]
He made his screen debut in the drama Hostage to Terror. Northover's other notable film roles include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , The Baztan Trilogy, Lotus Eaters, House of Boys, crime thriller Tutti i rumori del mare and director Mike Figgis' Lucrezia Borgia.
As a filmmaker his work includes documentary, fiction, and art film. Credits include Either Way starring Jodie Comer and the film series Mind Mapping starring Emma Corrin.
Northover was born in Ipswich, Suffolk. After high school he studied art and film before moving to New York to study drama at The Stella Adler Studio.[ citation needed ]
Northover's early screen appearances included dramas Ultimate Force and Silent Witness . His first lead role was in gritty TV drama, Hostage to Terror, for which he received The Times Critics Choice. He later reunited with director Finn McGough on Avalanche of Terror about British climber Ken Jones. The series received critical acclaim around the world.[ citation needed ]
In 2010 Northover made his feature film debut in the hard-hitting AIDS drama House of Boys opposite Stephen Fry and Udo Kier, shedding 40 lbs to play the film's lead character, a young street hustler living with AIDS in the early 1980s. The film went on to receive several international awards. Northover then appeared in the 7th installment of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . In an interview with Paper Magazine, [3] he described his experience on the production as "the biggest machine I have ever encountered."
In 2012 he starred in the hit indie feature Lotus Eaters opposite Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Johnny Flynn and the film adaptation of Donizetti's opera Lucrezia Borgia by director Mike Figgis.[ citation needed ]
In 2013 Italian director Federico Brugia cast Northover as the villain in his feature debut Tutti i rumori del mare. Set in the bleak underworld of the Hungarian human trafficking business. In an interview with AnOther Magazine [4] Northover commented on his character in the film, saying "It's his personal demons that keep his conscience at a safe distance and eventually it's his human weaknesses that get the better of him." The film went on to win the special jury prize at the Annecy Italian Film Festival.[ citation needed ]
In 2014 Northover appeared in Je m'appelle Hmmm..., the directorial debut by agnès b., and in Frédéric Auburtin's epic ensemble film United Passions as Max Kahn, one of the founding members of FIFA, alongside Gérard Depardieu and Tim Roth.[ citation needed ]
In 2015 Northover narrated the feature documentary Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire, alongside Robert Duvall and Bernardo Bertolucci.[ citation needed ]
In 2017 Northover was cast in the Nostromo Pictures/Netflix screen adaptation of Dolores Redondo's best-selling three-part crime thriller The Baztán Trilogy directed by Fernando González Molina. The first installment of the trilogy The Invisible Guardian was released in 2018. Northover stars opposite Spanish actress Marta Etura.[ citation needed ]
In 2018 Northover also starred in Pelleas, artist Josephine Meckseper's highly political modern adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck's play, Pelleas et Melisande. Northover played the title role of Pelleas opposite actress Alice Eve. The film premiered at The Whitney Museum of Art in New York.[ citation needed ]
It was announced in the spring of 2018 that production would begin that year on the next two films in The Baztán Trilogy; Legacy of the Bones and Offering to the Storm, with Etura and Northover reprising their roles and Molina returning to direct the two sequels for release in 2020.[ citation needed ]
Northover has directed several film and video projects, including the short film Either Way starring Jodie Comer and the film series ‘For Real’ starring Megan Rapinoe, music videos for artists such as Nick Drake and The The, and film projects for brands such as Loewe, Louis Vutton, Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs and Dior Homme.[ citation needed ]
He was invited to create a live video performance for David Bowie's Melt Down Festival, performed on stage at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.[ citation needed ]
His photographic and written work has appeared in various publications including Italian Vogue, [5] Dazed and Confused, AnOther Magazine, and the Mississippi press ‘conversations with filmmakers‘ book series. Northover interviewed fellow actor Kristen Stewart for the cover story of the S/S16 15th anniversary issue of AnOther Magazine.
Northover's published writings have included subjects as diverse as The Punk Rock movement, Human rights, The Bauhaus Movement and Avant Garde Cinema and interviews with filmmakers and artists such as Jonas Mekas, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Crisp and David Bailey.[ citation needed ]
For over two decades, Northover was a close collaborator with legendary artist and filmmaker Jonas Mekas, leading to several film and video projects and a number of international gallery exhibitions at institutions including the Centre Pompidou and agnès b.'s Galerie du Jour in Paris. In 2012 Northover co-curated a landmark exhibition of underground cinema, with work by Mekas at the Serpentine Gallery in London alongside Hans-Ulrich Obrist.[ citation needed ]
Northover was an executive producer on the Douglas Gordon directed feature film I Had Nowhere to Go. The film was met with critical acclaim at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival, Toronto Film festival and the London BFI Film Festival. [ citation needed ]
Northover is a long time supporter and board member of the Anthology Film Archives, the legendary archive and cinema dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of independent cinema. In March 2017 Northover co-hosted a landmark benefit event in aid of the Archive alongside Steve Buscemi, Greta Gerwig, Michael Stipe and Patti Smith.[ citation needed ]
In April 2019, in memory of his longtime friend and collaborator Jonas Mekas, Northover read Mekas’ poem Remnants of a Journey, live on stage as part of the EarthFest festival held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The concert was hosted by the global climate change organization Pathway to Paris. Northover was joined on stage by musicians Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon. Other performers included Patti Smith, Michael Stipe and the Harlem Gospel Choir. In 2020 Northover co-curated a group exhibition, dedicated to Mekas titled, ‘To Jonas With Love’. The exhibition involved mixed media work by a wide range of artists and filmmakers including Mike Figgis, Douglas Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Stephen Shore and Jem Cohen.[ citation needed ]
A longtime advocate for AIDS awareness, Northover has hosted several fundraising events for the AIDS charity Acria. In 2015 he took part in a gala charity event, honouring playwright and activist Larry Kramer alongside fellow actors Joel Grey and Judith Light. Northover read Kramer's landmark AIDS awareness essay "1,112 and Counting"[ citation needed ]
Northover was invited to become the face of Italian couture fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna for their fall/winter 2015 and spring/summer 2016 campaigns, following in the steps of Adrien Brody and Sam Riley.[ citation needed ]
Northover was named one of Tatler magazine's 134 hottest people of 2014.[ citation needed ]
Title | Year | Role |
---|---|---|
Offering to the Storm | 2020 | James |
Legacy of the Bones | 2020 | James |
Pelléas | 2019 | Pelléas |
The Invisible Guardian | 2017 | James |
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire | 2015 | Narrator |
United Passions | 2014 | Max Kahn |
Je m'appelle Hmmm… | 2013 | British Truck Driver |
Tutti I Rumori del Mare | 2012 | Thomas |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 | 2011 | Hogsmeade Death Eater |
Lotus Eaters | 2011 | Felix |
Lucrezia Borgia | 2011 | Pedro Calderon |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | 2010 | Hogsmeade Death Eater |
House of Boys | 2010 | Jake |
Abyss | 2010 | Elwood |
o Tripoli | 2010 | War Photographer |
I Shouldn't Be Alive | 2010 | Ken Jones |
Banged Up Abroad | 2008 | Rhys Partridge |
A Letter From Greenpoint | 2005 | Benn |
Ultimate Force | 2005 | PC Betts |
Silent Witness | 2004 | Michael Otty |
James Stanley Brakhage was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film.
Jonas Mekas was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwide. Mekas was active in New York City, where he co-founded Anthology Film Archives, The Film-Makers' Cooperative, and the journal Film Culture. He was also the first film critic for The Village Voice.
Richard Foreman is an American avant-garde playwright and the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.
Adolfas Mekas was a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, director, editor, actor and educator. With his brother Jonas Mekas, he founded the magazine Film Culture, as well as the Film-Makers' Cooperative and was associated with George Maciunas and the Fluxus art movement at its beginning. He made several short films, culminating in the feature Hallelujah the Hills in 1963, which was played at the Cannes Film Festival of that year and is now considered a classic of American film.
John Greyson is a Canadian director, writer, video artist, producer, and political activist, whose work frequently deals with queer characters and themes. He was part of a loosely affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in the 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave.
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis is a documentary film that premiered in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It is a collection of interviews and clips by and about the revolutionary artist Jack Smith. It was directed by Mary Jordan and produced by Tongue Press Productions.
Film Comment is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, Film Comment began publishing on a bi-monthly basis with the Nov/Dec issue of 1972. The magazine's editorial team also hosts the annual Film Comment Selects at the Film at Lincoln Center. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, publication of the magazine was suspended in May 2020, and its website was updated on March 10, 2021, with news of the relaunch of the Film Comment podcast and a weekly newsletter.
Storm de Hirsch (1912–2000) was an American poet and filmmaker. She was a key figure in the New York avant-garde film scene of the 1960s, and one of the founding members of the Film-Makers' Cooperative. Although often overlooked by historians, in recent years she has been recognized as a pioneer of underground cinema.
The Disposable Film Festival (DFF) is an annual juried international festival of short films made using casual, lo-fi video capture devices like cell phones, point and shoot cameras, webcams, and inexpensive handycams. It also features artist profile screenings of filmmakers working in these media and hosts educational film workshops.
Dogma 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity". These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists", as opposed to the studio. They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme is the Danish word for dogma.
Joanna Pickering is a British-born actress and playwright. She is known for her Trilogy Truth, Lies and Deception, her acting work in Pelleas starring alongside Alice Eve, and is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment.
The Film-Makers' Cooperative is an artist-run, non-profit organization founded in 1961 in New York City by Jonas Mekas, Andy Warhol, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Lionel Rogosin, Gregory Markopoulos, Lloyd Michael Williams, and other filmmakers, for the distribution, education, and exhibition of avant-garde films and alternative media.
Rosey Chan is a multimedia artist and musician who studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music. Her solo concerts incorporate cinematic visuals and combine her own compositions with selected classical repertoire and electronic fusion. Her interests in collaborative projects have taken her into a world of contrasted disciplines; Architecture, Design, Poetic Spoken word, Contemporary dance, Experimental music, and Film composition. Rosey is a Steinway Artist.
House of Boys is a 2009 Luxembourgian-German drama film directed and written by Jean-Claude Schlim, starring Layke Anderson, Benn Northover and Udo Kier. The film follows the story of Frank, a gay teenager in the 80s who runs away from his home to start a new life and later his struggle against the recently discovered AIDS.
Jérôme Sans is a French artistic director, director of contemporary art institutions, art critic, and curator. He is based in Paris.
Barbara Rubin (1945–1980) was an American filmmaker and performance artist. She is best known for her landmark 1963 underground film Christmas on Earth.
Jerry Jofen (1925–1993) was an American painter, collagist, and experimental filmmaker.
Harry Stendhal is an American gallerist, arts organization founder, and entrepreneur.
The Invisible Guardian is a 2017 Spanish thriller film directed by Fernando González Molina based on the eponymous novel by Dolores Redondo. It was followed by two sequels, The Legacy of the Bones and Offering to the Storm.
The Legacy of the Bones is a 2019 Spanish supernatural crime-thriller film directed by Fernando González Molina. The film is the second in the Baztán Trilogy and is an adaptation based on the eponymous novel by Dolores Redondo. It is a sequel to the 2017 thriller film The Invisible Guardian and is followed by Offering to the Storm.