Scott Barley
Known For: Directing
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: November 11, 1992 (32 years old)
Place of Birth: Cardiff, Wales, UK
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.
2020
2017
Editor
Sleep Has Her House
Producer
Sleep Has Her House
Director
Sleep Has Her House
Editor
The Green Ray
Sound Designer
The Green Ray
Director
The Green Ray
Cinematography
The Green Ray
Director of Photography
Passing
Director
Passing
Director of Photography
Womb
Editor
Womb
Music
Womb
Director
Womb
Sound Designer
Womb
Director of Photography
Sleep Has Her House
Sound
Sleep Has Her House
Idea
Sleep Has Her House
Cinematography
Sleep Has Her House
Music
Sleep Has Her House
Compositing Artist
Sleep Has Her House
Sound Designer
Sleep Has Her House
Camera Operator
Sleep Has Her House
Art Direction
Sleep Has Her House
Camera Operator
Womb
Cinematography
Womb
Art Direction
Womb
Producer
Womb
Sound
Womb
Compositing Artist
Womb
Special Effects
Womb
Idea
Womb
Painter
Sleep Has Her House
Cinematography
Passing
Camera Operator
Passing
Editor
Passing
Producer
Passing
Idea
Passing
Sound
The Green Ray
Compositing Artist
The Green Ray
Art Direction
The Green Ray
Producer
The Green Ray
Director of Photography
The Green Ray
Camera Operator
The Green Ray
Idea
The Green Ray
Director
Painting (I)
Director of Photography
Painting (I)
Cinematography
Painting (I)
Producer
Painting (I)
Editor
Painting (I)
Idea
Painting (I)
Camera Operator
Painting (I)
Special Effects
Sleep Has Her House
Writer
Sleep Has Her House
2016
Producer
Closer
Cinematography
Closer
Director
Closer
Editor
Closer
Director
Hinterlands
Cinematography
Hinterlands
Sound Designer
Hinterlands
Editor
Hinterlands
Director of Photography
Hinterlands
Producer
Hinterlands
Sound
Hinterlands
Music
Hinterlands
Idea
Hinterlands
Special Effects
Hinterlands
Compositing Artist
Hinterlands
Camera Operator
Hinterlands
Writer
Closer
Compositing Artist
Closer
Camera Operator
Closer
Sound
Closer
Sound Designer
Closer
Art Direction
Closer
Poem
Closer
Idea
Closer
Director of Photography
Closer
2015
Actor Himself
Hours
Actor Himself
Hunter
Actor Himself
The Sadness of the Trees
Director
Hours
Sound Designer
Shadows
Director of Photography
Shadows
Sound mixer
Shadows
Idea
Shadows
Director
The Sadness of the Trees
Script
Shadows
Director
Shadows
Sound Editor
Shadows
Editor
Shadows
Cinematography
Shadows
Director of Photography
Hunter
Cinematography
Hunter
Sound Designer
Hunter
Idea
Hunter
Editor
Hunter
Director
Hunter
Director of Photography
Evenfall
Director
Evenfall
Cinematography
Evenfall
Idea
Evenfall
Sound
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Editor
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Cinematography
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Director
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Producer
Hunter
Sound
Hunter
Music
Hunter
Compositing Artist
Hunter
Camera Operator
Hunter
Producer
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Music
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Sound Designer
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Director of Photography
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Camera Operator
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Music
The Sadness of the Trees
Sound
The Sadness of the Trees
Sound Designer
The Sadness of the Trees
Editor
The Sadness of the Trees
Producer
The Sadness of the Trees
Cinematography
The Sadness of the Trees
Compositing Artist
The Sadness of the Trees
Idea
The Sadness of the Trees
Director of Photography
The Sadness of the Trees
Camera Operator
Evenfall
Editor
Evenfall
Editor
Hours
Cinematography
Hours
Camera Operator
Hours
Producer
Hours
2014
Director
Ille Lacrimas
Camera Operator
Ille Lacrimas
Editor
Ille Lacrimas
Director of Photography
Polytechnique
Cinematography
Polytechnique
Director
Polytechnique
Idea
Polytechnique
Camera Operator
Polytechnique
Producer
Polytechnique
Editor
Polytechnique
Compositing Artist
Polytechnique
Director of Photography
Ille Lacrimas
Cinematography
Ille Lacrimas
Writer
Ille Lacrimas
Idea
Ille Lacrimas
Compositing Artist
Ille Lacrimas
Sound Designer
Ille Lacrimas
2013
Actor Himself
Irresolute
Director
Nightwalk
Director
Retirement
Director
Irresolute
Editor
Nightwalk
Sound Designer
Nightwalk
Cinematography
Retirement
Idea
Retirement
Cinematography
Nightwalk
Compositing Artist
Nightwalk
Cinematography
Irresolute
Sound
Irresolute
Compositing Artist
Irresolute
Editor
Irresolute
Sound Designer
Irresolute
Music
Irresolute
Producer
Irresolute
Camera Operator
Irresolute
Producer
Nightwalk
Camera Operator
Nightwalk
Director of Photography
Nightwalk
Sound
Nightwalk
Director of Photography
Irresolute
Idea
Nightwalk
Idea
Irresolute
Producer
Retirement
Sound
Retirement
Sound Designer
Retirement
Camera Operator
Retirement
Director of Photography
Retirement
Compositing Artist
Retirement
Editor
Retirement
2012
Idea
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Cinematography
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Director of Photography
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Director
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Camera Operator
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Producer
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Editor
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Others
Director
The Sea Behind Her Head
Director
The Emerald Fire
Producer
The Emerald Fire
Director of Photography
The Emerald Fire
Sound
The Emerald Fire
Editor
The Emerald Fire
Idea
The Emerald Fire
Writer
The Emerald Fire
Compositing Artist
The Emerald Fire
Production Assistant
Silent Friend
Producer
The Sea Behind Her Head
Camera Operator
The Sea Behind Her Head
Sound
The Sea Behind Her Head
Sound Designer
The Sea Behind Her Head
Music
The Sea Behind Her Head
Editor
The Sea Behind Her Head
Cinematography
The Sea Behind Her Head
Director of Photography
The Sea Behind Her Head
Writer
The Sea Behind Her Head
Idea
The Sea Behind Her Head
Compositing Artist
The Sea Behind Her Head
Drone Cinematographer
The Sea Behind Her Head
Drone Pilot
The Sea Behind Her Head
Art Direction
The Sea Behind Her Head
Painter
The Sea Behind Her Head
Special Effects
The Sea Behind Her Head
Researcher
The Sea Behind Her Head
Underwater Camera
The Sea Behind Her Head
Underwater Director of Photography
The Sea Behind Her Head