Scott Barleyborn 1992
usually
Director
Popularity
0.2
Famous
Biography
Scott Barley is an artist-filmmaker, cinematographer, musician, and lecturer based in Scotland. His work is primarily concerned with the anthropocene, nature, darkness, absence, cosmology, phenomenology, and mysticism. He has exhibited at film festivals and art galleries worldwide, including ICA London, Jeu de Paume Paris, Doclisboa, Karlovy Vary IFF, Venice Biennale, QAGOMA, MoMA Río de Janeiro, and MoCA Busan. Since 2015, Scott has made films solo, switching from ARRI cameras and larger crews to almost exclusively shooting his films on iPhone, and carrying out all aspects of production (direction, writing, cinematography, sound, post-production, and distribution) himself, with an emphasis on poetics, nature, and environmental sustainability. His short film, Hinterlands was voted one of the best films of 2016 in Sight and Sound's annual film poll. Scott's first feature, Sleep Has Her House was released in 2017. It received the Jury Award for Best Film at Fronteira International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival, Brazil. It later received nominations in Sight and Sound’s 2017 and 2018 annual best film polls. In 2018, Barley co-founded Obscuritads — an international collective focused on “rendering the invisible visible” through cinema, fine art, digital ecologies and their intersection — with filmmaker, Mikel Guillen (Toronto) and curator and programmer, Miquel Escudero Diéguez (Paris, Barcelona). American filmmaker, Phil Solomon (1954–2019) is an honorary member. In 2020, film historian, and Jean-Luc Godard's editor for Le Livre d’Image (Cannes Film Festival’s Special Palme d'Or Winner) Nicole Brenez cited Sleep Has Her House as one of the ten best films of the decade, after previously writing that “[Barley’s] films renew our conception of visuality”, and describing him as “one of the most gifted visual poets of his generation”. In 2022, Sleep Has Her House was included in the decennial Sight and Sound poll of The Greatest Films of All Time, receiving votes in both the Critics’ and Directors' polls as one of the ten greatest films ever made. A revised and remastered version of the film was completed in 2023. Outside of his own solo filmography, Barley has worked with other filmmakers as a cinematographer, multimedia artist, and consultant. He was cinematographer and multimedia artist for To the Moon (Tadhg O’Sullivan, 2020) with Jimmy Gimferrer, cinematographer for Birdsong and Story of My Death (Albert Serra, 2008, 2013), Joshua Bonetta (El Mar La Mar, 2017), and artist-filmmaker, Margaret Salmon. As a pre-production consultant, he contributed to the upcoming tenth feature film, Silent Friend (starring Léa Seydoux and Tony Leung Chiu-wai) by Academy Award nominee Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul, Golden Bear winner, 2017). Danish film critic, and former director of the European Documentary Network, Tue Steen Müller has described him as the “Anselm Kiefer of cinema”. His second feature film, The Sea Behind Her Head, funded by the British Film Institute (BFI) and Doc Society, is currently in production, along with several new short films, and a series of multimedia works, funded by Creative Scotland.
Credits
Horror • Mystery
Director, Producer, Camera Operator, Sound, Sound Designer, Music, Editor, Cinematography, Director of Photography, Writer, Idea, Compositing Artist, Drone Cinematographer, Drone Pilot, Art Direction, Painter, Special Effects, Researcher, Underwater Camera, Underwater Director of Photography
2020
Documentary
Cinematography, Music, Sound, Editor, Director, Director of Photography, Art Direction, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator, Sound Designer, Painter
2017
Drama
Director of Photography, Editor, Music, Director, Sound Designer, Camera Operator, Cinematography, Art Direction, Producer, Sound, Compositing Artist, Special Effects, Idea
2017
Director of Photography, Director, Editor, Producer, Idea, Cinematography, Camera Operator
2017
Mystery
Editor, Sound Designer, Director, Cinematography, Compositing Artist, Art Direction, Producer, Sound, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Idea
2017
Mystery
Editor, Producer, Director, Director of Photography, Sound, Idea, Cinematography, Music, Compositing Artist, Sound Designer, Camera Operator, Art Direction, Painter, Special Effects, Writer
2016
Horror • Mystery
Director, Cinematography, Sound Designer, Editor, Director of Photography, Producer, Sound, Music, Idea, Special Effects, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator
2016
Mystery
Producer, Cinematography, Director, Editor, Writer, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator, Sound, Sound Designer, Art Direction, Poem, Idea, Director of Photography
2015
Sound, Editor, Cinematography, Director, Producer, Music, Sound Designer, Director of Photography, Camera Operator
2015
Mystery
Director of Photography, Cinematography, Sound Designer, Idea, Editor, Director, Producer, Sound, Music, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator
2015
Director, Music, Sound, Sound Designer, Editor, Producer, Cinematography, Compositing Artist, Idea, Director of Photography
2015
Documentary • Drama
Sound Designer, Director of Photography, Sound mixer, Idea, Script, Director, Sound Editor, Editor, Cinematography
2014
Drama
Director, Camera Operator, Editor, Director of Photography, Cinematography, Writer, Idea, Compositing Artist, Sound Designer
2014
Documentary
Director of Photography, Cinematography, Director, Idea, Camera Operator, Producer, Editor, Compositing Artist
2013
Director, Editor, Sound Designer, Cinematography, Compositing Artist, Producer, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Sound, Idea
2013
Director, Cinematography, Idea, Producer, Sound, Sound Designer, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Compositing Artist, Editor
2013
Mystery
Director, Cinematography, Sound, Compositing Artist, Editor, Sound Designer, Music, Producer, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Idea
2012
Idea, Cinematography, Director of Photography, Director, Producer, Editor, Camera Operator
Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Sound, Editor, Idea, Writer, Compositing Artist
2025
Horror • Mystery
Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Cinematography, Art Direction, Camera Operator, Compositing Artist, Idea
2017
Director, Director of Photography, Cinematography, Producer, Editor, Idea, Camera Operator
