
Directing
Ryan Betschart
Born
1985-07-16 (41)
Known for
Directing
Credits
30 titles
Ryan is co-director and head curator of San Diego Underground Film Festival (MovieMaker Magazine Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee), has programmed for Slamdance Film Festival, has taught Adjunct at CalArts, and is currently a Lecturer at UC San Diego in the Cinematic Arts Program. His films have screened at Fantasia, Slamdance, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Porto Post/Doc, Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Desert Daze, and have won awards at Slamdance, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Indie Memphis, Arizona Underground. His band Shrine Maiden's album And I Arise was named one the Top 10 Experimental Albums of 2020 by Outtallectuals zine. Their 4th al…
Known for
NRPudding describes through auditory and visual wonder two children exploring their body curiosity through the telling of false memories regarding 1970's pop icons.
Pudding
2015
10.0False Expectations is a 3-channel 16mm expanded cinema with a scored live noise performance by Shrine Maiden. Finding and preserving memories of connections and tenderness in dead flowers, in between blinds, slants of shadows and hand processed film frames.
False Expectations
2023
NRA rumination on the passive politics of whiteness. My character's own flippant attitude towards the mention of racial injustice is both a nod towards the ignorance of white youth and the begging of the question - if I had known, would I have cared beyond a shallow verbal support of the oppressed? A hard day at the pool and the call to dinner being my siren song - an invitation to wash my hands literally and figuratively - guilty thoughts running down the drain, making room for a never ending beach party summer.
Sun Sonification
2021
NR婦人 (Fujin) /foo-jeen/ noun/plural noun, can be translated as a more formal or polite way to refer to a woman, such as “lady” or “madam” and in some contexts can mean “sisterhood” or “womenfolk.” This footage of my great-grandmother and aunties getting ready for a night out is a glimpse into femininity and womanhood among aging Indigenous Asian women, free of the western ethnographic gaze that has haunted many portrayals of bodies of color.
婦人 (Fujin)
2020
NRMy God, Divine Creator! Don't let me find a watery grave!
A Storm at Sea
2025
NRAn ode to the 1978 version of Kenneth Anger's film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (dubbed The Sacred Mushroom Edition) and it's peculiar use of Electric Light Orchestra's album El Dorado over images of a ritual orgy between gods, The Sacred Mushroom Edition (2016) finds two fallen angels arguing over ELO and their lead singer Jeff Lynne's affiliated supergroup The Traveling Wilburys - and his connection to the dark side.
The Sacred Mushroom Edition (For Kenneth Anger, by way of Kuchar)
2017
Film credits
Behind the camera
NRPudding describes through auditory and visual wonder two children exploring their body curiosity through the telling of false memories regarding 1970's pop icons.
Pudding
2015
10.0False Expectations is a 3-channel 16mm expanded cinema with a scored live noise performance by Shrine Maiden. Finding and preserving memories of connections and tenderness in dead flowers, in between blinds, slants of shadows and hand processed film frames.
False Expectations
2023
NRA rumination on the passive politics of whiteness. My character's own flippant attitude towards the mention of racial injustice is both a nod towards the ignorance of white youth and the begging of the question - if I had known, would I have cared beyond a shallow verbal support of the oppressed? A hard day at the pool and the call to dinner being my siren song - an invitation to wash my hands literally and figuratively - guilty thoughts running down the drain, making room for a never ending beach party summer.
Sun Sonification
2021
NR婦人 (Fujin) /foo-jeen/ noun/plural noun, can be translated as a more formal or polite way to refer to a woman, such as “lady” or “madam” and in some contexts can mean “sisterhood” or “womenfolk.” This footage of my great-grandmother and aunties getting ready for a night out is a glimpse into femininity and womanhood among aging Indigenous Asian women, free of the western ethnographic gaze that has haunted many portrayals of bodies of color.
婦人 (Fujin)
2020
NRMy God, Divine Creator! Don't let me find a watery grave!
A Storm at Sea
2025
NRAn ode to the 1978 version of Kenneth Anger's film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (dubbed The Sacred Mushroom Edition) and it's peculiar use of Electric Light Orchestra's album El Dorado over images of a ritual orgy between gods, The Sacred Mushroom Edition (2016) finds two fallen angels arguing over ELO and their lead singer Jeff Lynne's affiliated supergroup The Traveling Wilburys - and his connection to the dark side.
The Sacred Mushroom Edition (For Kenneth Anger, by way of Kuchar)
2017
DIY, glitch art, punk rock, VHS // Cassette Tape look into life, death, and the importance of journaling.
Before She Leaves Her Body
—
NRMusic video for Shrine Maiden. To the west I rise To the east I sleep I pull the tides - And again, repeat And Again repeat - And again repeat I fall, i rise - like this reprise - And again - And again - And again i rise And again i rise - And again i rise No need to speak - a loop, a vow - and slow repeat - And again And again And again - I fall i rise - like this reprise And again we rise I wax, I wane - I fall, i rise like this refrain - Just the same And It’s just the same I fall, i rise - like this reprise - the night replies - and all we are - is this disguise - is this disguise So Rise and fall Again - with me Again with me
And I Arise (Reprise)
2025
NRA remix of James Benning's Ten Skies
A Theory of /Cloud/
2025
NRA meditation on the false promise of present day anti racist initiatives. How can two "Night skaters" be seen if no one puts them on camera?
Cousins
2021
NRA tribute to Diamond Dave, done as an experimental doc about a rare natural phenomenon
An Example of Lee-Roth Fog, Isolated Under Laboratory Conditions
2022
NRAt a seance, an American war vet upset over his daughters suicide is tricked by con artists who end up playing him a tape of his own war crimes, triggering him to take his life.
Operation Wandering Soul ////////// Ghost Tape Number 10
2025
NRAt a seance, an American war vet upset over his daughters suicide is tricked by con artists who end up playing him a tape of his own war crimes, triggering him to take his life.
Operation Wandering Soul ////////// Ghost Tape Number 10
2025
NRIn an attempt to use mirror divination, a spirit appears as a clever creature during the year of the rabbit.
kāua - we (you and i)
2023
NRA fever dream of anti-boomer angst told through disjointed and aggressive sound, picture and edit; Zablah demon baby boomer seeks to convince a millennial that eating at Applebee's is a worthwhile experience.
Zablah
2018
NRA fever dream of anti-boomer angst told through disjointed and aggressive sound, picture and edit; Zablah demon baby boomer seeks to convince a millennial that eating at Applebee's is a worthwhile experience.
Zablah
2018
NRInterpretation of a dream I had building a house with stock animation and Migos stuck in my head. Central to my dream was the worry: Is there a Safe Space to Load the Building Materials?? There must be.
There Must Be a Safe Space to Load the Building Materials
2018
NRA visual prose poem on a missed encounter during a brief period of altered states of consciousness.
Towards the Experimental Control of Dreaming
2018
NRIn 1990 parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo, an expert in the study of astral projection and an accomplished oboe player, was murdered in his Northridge home. The crime remains unsolved.
A Collection of Attempts in Astral Travel
2019
NRAn ode to the Beast; who was felt strongly during the 1970s, when Americans had idle time for metaphysical inquiry, as benefit from the racism of their forefathers, in turn setting in motion an attempt towards a mass liberation of consciousness, which, succumbing to arrogance, unsuccessfully bid to help remove the psychological chains imposed upon others, chains which were the genesis of the aforementioned teenage thought liberation. A feedback loop of failed promises inherited by lies.
A Peculiar Week in My Dream Journal May 1973
2019
NRAn ode to the Beast; who was felt strongly during the 1970s, when Americans had idle time for metaphysical inquiry, as benefit from the racism of their forefathers, in turn setting in motion an attempt towards a mass liberation of consciousness, which, succumbing to arrogance, unsuccessfully bid to help remove the psychological chains imposed upon others, chains which were the genesis of the aforementioned teenage thought liberation. A feedback loop of failed promises inherited by lies.
A Peculiar Week in My Dream Journal May 1973
2019
NRI have seen I have heard I have felt The splendor Of the rain The shimmer Of the mist I’ve gone to where only cloud and sea are seen
Ua 'ike au
2025
NRIt's been a long day, and you're tired. You come home, nearly doze off in front of the television set, then wander down the hall and plop on your bed expecting to fall asleep in a instant. But - suddenly and mysteriously - you find yourself paralyzed. Gushing sounds fill your ears. Bright flashes of light flicker under your closed eyelids. Then you feel as if you are beginning to float... The second film in our tribute to the late parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo, murdered in 1990 under mysterious circumstances.
The Second Body
2020
NRbody / negative - everett (feat. Midwife) is the second single from their upcoming album "everett" out Dec 8th, 2023.
body / negative - everett (feat. Midwife)
2023
NRkino lau: many bodies is a performance of live music and projections that aims to bridge the ancient and the contemporary, the tangible and the ethereal, creating a multisensory journey that resonates with diverse and modern audiences. This immersive experience is a harmonious convergence of two distinct artistic forms: magic lantern projections and ambient drone metal merged with traditional Hawaiian chants.
kino lau: many bodies
2024
NRA man with an orange face is in a position of power which we believe has something to do with parallel time lines. On August 23rd, 2012, a post titled “Berenstein Bears: We Are Living in Our Own Parallel Universe” was published on the blog The Wood Between Worlds, which described a widespread memory of the children’s book series Berenstein Bears as “Berenstain,” explaining the false memory as the result of an alternate reality spilling over into our own. Shot on VHS, recorded off a monitor, sound on cassette.
The Mandela Effect
2018
NRA vivid tableau of tenderness, Cup of Stars finds two brothers under a cool night sky, fishing for stars and supernovas. Using dream logic under their own bizarre terms, The Betschart Bros. subtly express through a smearing of light and the telling of folk tales, ideas of growing up as siblings in Southern California.
Cup of Stars
2015
NRA VHS rendition of what happens when we die - an investigation into death induced dream ephemera or; a body (mind) dissolves into video signal memories.
Girl Becomes Snow
2017
NRAn exploration into Astral Projection via my diagnosis of Exploding Head Syndrome. May Sinclair's 1912 novella about a psychic healer's distress over personal depletion when helping clients informs my research of the late parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo's life's work in mapping astral projection techniques; these techniques serve as guideposts for my own personal journey in understanding my nightly EHS haltions.
The Flaw in the Crystal
2021
