Benita Raphan, an influential and prolific experimental filmmaker based in New York City, was known for her short video portraits of the talented and troubled. After Raphan’s death by suicide in 2021, her family asked colleague and mentor Alan Berliner to complete her final unfinished film. As he contemplates Raphan’s vast archive of hard drives, notebooks, photos, and sketches, Berliner imagines a film about Benita in addition to one by Benita. The resulting collaborative posthumous project celebrates and eulogizes Raphan and her works with film clips, journal entries, interviews, and footage featuring her dogs—another of Raphan’s myriad passions. This sensitive, lyrical, and poignant portrait is a candid and affecting mosaic of excerpts and insights assembled by a master storyteller and filmmaking friend. TM

Q&A following screening