Robert Beavers

Robert Beavers (born 1949) is an American experimental filmmaker whose work stands among the most significant in postwar avant-garde cinema. He is best known for My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure, an 18-film cycle spanning decades of work, much of it later re-edited.

Beavers developed a distinctive visual language using hand-cut mattes, filters, and precise sound–image structures, often focusing on craft and manual labor as metaphors for filmmaking itself. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, he began making films in New York before moving to Europe in 1967 with his partner, Gregory J. Markopoulos. Together they withdrew their films from distribution, presenting them only at the Temenos screenings in Arcadia, Greece (1980–86). After Markopoulos’s death in 1992, Beavers founded Temenos, Inc. to preserve both of their legacies.

His films draw deeply on place and history, from Florence in From the Notebook of… (1971/1998) and Venice in Ruskin (1975/1997) to the Greek landscapes of Wingseed (1985), The Hedge Theater (1986–90/2002), and The Ground (1993–2001). Later works include Pitcher of Colored Light (2007), The Suppliant (2012), Listening to the Space in My Room (2013), and The Sparrow Dream (2022).

Beavers continues to live and work between Berlin and Massachusetts with filmmaker Ute Aurand, while overseeing the preservation of both his own films and Markopoulos’s Eniaios.

Known For
Directing
Born
January 1, 1949 (age 76)
Place of Birth
Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
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2008

Zuoz

1967

Eros, O Basileus

2002

The Hedge Theater

2003

Early Monthly Segments

1967

Winged Dialogue

1968

Plan of Brussels

1997

Birth of a Nation

1972

From the Notebook of...

2013

Listening to the Space in My Room

2018

Cape Cod

1967

Jabbok

2000

Sotiros

1971

Still Light

2006

Mother's Day

2024

A Visit With Robert

1987

Due film-maker in giardino - Robert Beavers & Gregory J.Markopoulos

1972

From the Notebook of...

2013

Listening to the Space in My Room

1974

Ruskin

1980

Amor

2022

The Sparrow Dream

1970

Diminished Frame

2000

Sotiros

2003

Early Monthly Segments

2010

The Suppliant

2003

Early Monthly Segments

2010

The Suppliant

2003

Early Monthly Segments

2001

The Ground

2002

The Hedge Theater

2007

Pitcher of Colored Light

2023

My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure

1973

Work Done

1969

The Count of Days

1967

On the Everyday Use of the Eyes of Death

1967

Winged Dialogue

1971

Still Light

2014

First Weeks

1968

Plan of Brussels

1985

Wingseed

1983

Efpsychi

1997

The Stoas

1967

Spiracle

1972

The Painting

1970

Palinode

2017

Among the Eucalyptuses

2013

Listening to the Space in My Room

1972

From the Notebook of...

2001

The Ground

1972

From the Notebook of...

1972

From the Notebook of...

2001

The Ground

2016

Shared Table

2002

The Hedge Theater

2013

Listening to the Space in My Room

2016

Shared Table

2016

Shared Table

2002

The Hedge Theater

2010

The Suppliant

2018

“Der Klang, die Welt…”

2024

Dedication: Bernice Hodges

1969

View

1978

Sotiros in the Elements

1977

Sotiros Responds

1978

Sotiros (Alone)

1980

Amor

1980

Amor

1972

The Painting

1972

The Painting

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