Before She Leaves Her Body

DIY, glitch art, punk rock, VHS // Cassette Tape look into life, death, and the importance of journaling.

Two sisters live life, party, then die. As their souls travel through Purgatory in search for each other - they work towards tapping into "the signal" a relentless patch of aggressive short wave radio sounds and VHS images - Their existence continued on after death due to the recordings they made in life.

  • The Betschart Bros
    Director
  • The Betschart Bros
    Writer
  • Kathryn Eipl
    Producer
  • The Betschart Bros
    Producer
  • Curtis Bortle
    Executive Producer
  • Karissa Hahn
    Cast
  • Megan Rippey
    Cast
  • Chance McManus
    Cast
  • Max Benton
    Cast
  • Yvette Angulo
    Cast
  • Solomon Turner
    Director of Photography
  • Vashti Harrison
    Assistant Director
  • Rachel Nakawatase
    Production Design
  • Rachel Nakawatase
    Costume Designer
  • Christina Delfino
    Make-Up
  • Merry Cammack
    Special Effects Make-Up
  • The Betschart Bros
    Editor
  • The Betschart Bros
    Sound Editor
  • The Betschart Bros
    Sound Design
  • Craig Smith
    Sound Mix
  • The Betschart Bros
    Production Sound
  • Kathryn Eipl
    Production Sound
  • Curtis Bortle
    Production Sound
  • Chance McManus
    Production Sound
  • Timothy Hopper
    Production Sound
  • James Lake
    Composer
  • Kids
    Soundtrack
  • Post Life
    Soundtrack
  • Heller Keller
    Soundtrack
  • Jungle Fever
    Soundtrack
  • Vitriol
    Soundtrack
  • Loko Ono
    Soundtrack
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Art House, Drama, DIY, Glitch, Punk, Cosmic
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 11 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 12, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    VHS, HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Antimatter [Media Art]
    Victoria, BC
    October 17, 2015
    World Premiere
  • Arizona Underground Film Festival
    Tucson, AZ
    United States
    September 17, 2016
    USA Premiere
    Director's Award
Director Biography - The Betschart Bros

The Betschart Bros. (Ryan, born 1985 + Tyler, born 1988) have been making lo-fi video and film works for over 15 years. They have been described as "The sexiest experimental brother duo since George and Mike Kuchar."

'We believe in making work for ourselves, and hope that our audience can find an emotional connection to the ideas and situations we present through our art pieces and video works.'

Throughout their career, Ryan and Tyler have made hundreds of video and film pieces, each born out of necessity - 1. desire to play. 2. desire to self express. The brothers are forever compelled to put into auditory and visual form their ideas and feelings; words and sentences alone do not do them justice. Only through the collision of image and sound do the brothers Betschart feel at peace with their hearts and with their heads. The process of making, for the Betschart Bros., is as important as the finished product.

Through this very natural desire to express themselves the Betschart Bros. have made a career in film and video. Both brothers hold BA degrees in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego; Ryan graduated in 2013 with an MFA in Film and Video from Cal Arts - Tyler graduated with his MFA from Cal Arts in the year 2015. Both brothers are freelance teachers, editors, writers, video makers and sound workers. The brothers have taught film classes for K - 12, College level, and various workshops. Their work has been shown in various museum galleries and film festivals around the world. In 2015 the brothers started the San Diego Underground Film Festival, a festival dedicated to the mixing of structuralist experimental films, honest narratives, and DIY lo-fi everything. Most recently their short film Cup of Stars (2015) received a Jury Award from Slamdance Film festival, their feature film had its world premier in Canada at Antimatter November of 2015, and their short Pudding (2015) which played alongside its sister Cup of Stars at Slamdance, has been making audiences cringe throughout the world.

sdundergroundfilm.com
betschartbros.com

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Director Statement

We are extremely proud of the boundaries pushed by this film.

We set out to make a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) film that both cost relatively nothing to make and a film that can be made relatively quick (8 months from pre-production to final sound mix). We wanted to make a film that spoke directly to our interests and to our influences without regard to genre, format, or style. We freely jump between narrative film, experimental film, video art, youtube glitch mashup, structuralist film, music video, home movies, sound art, and documentary films in style; and we freely move between VHS camera, HD digital camera, and sounds over a slug, in format.

We wanted to make a film as a sort of "visual album" and construct it in a way our favorite punk rock records were produced - at a breakneck pace, rough around the edges and big on attitude. Our soundtrack consists of all women fronted punk bands from Southern California. They kick ass. Punk is a collection of individuals and that's how we wanted to treat our film making process.

We used non actors and improvised most of the dialogue throughout the movie. We set up scenarios and objectives that allowed our non actors to bring in their own experiences and stories, while maintaining the overall story's idea - that cinema and other recording mediums are a way to capture place and time, potentially having your memories, and in turn yourself - live forever.

The ideas of the film are not new. Our intention is to get a "feeling" rather than elucidate any meaning of something as tired of a conversation as "what happens when we die?"

Our influences in making Before She Leaves Her Body include: Black Flag's more experimental records (Family Man, My War) and The Fall's records were huge in our thinking about what can be said in media. The structuralist films of James Benning, The Red Tapes by Vito Acconci, Berlin Horse by Malcom Le Grice, the films of George and Mike Kuchar, A Family Finds Entertainment by Ryan Trecartin, and SLC Punk by James Merendino are a few visual and narrative references.

Our hope is that you watch this film with open eyes and ears. Let it sweep you away in its sounds and images.