Ben Rivers's MARE'S NEST (2025) — LA Premiere!

A dreamy and lyrical meditation on language, memory, myth, and what human life might become beyond the ruins of the contemporary world
About this Event

7th House, in co-presentation with Los Angeles Filmforum, is proud to present a special two-day engagement and Los Angeles premiere of internationally renowned filmmaker Ben Rivers’s acclaimed new feature MARE’S NEST (2025). Set in a strange future world with no adults, where children have inherited the remnants of a fallen civilization and begun forging new forms of community, ritual, and meaning, the film follows a young girl named Moon as she wanders through a landscape shaped by ecological collapse and what remains of the world that came before. Shot on luminous 16mm film and based in part on postmodernist author Don DeLillo’s one-act play The Word for Snow, MARE’S NEST imagines not simply the end of a world, but the fragile and hopeful emergence of a new one.

Filmed across caves, coastlines, quarries, deserts, and barren expanses in Spain and Wales, and imbued with a dreamlike atmosphere, Rivers sidesteps the familiar tropes of post-apocalyptic cinema in favor of something stranger, quieter, and more open-ended: a speculative folk tale shaped by myth, memory, ritual, and the possibility of reinventing the world after the collapse of the old one. Along her journey, Moon encounters other young inhabitants who have fashioned their own stories, customs, and ways of understanding the strange world around them. As she searches for meaning amid uncertainty, disappearance, and transformation, language itself begins to unravel, gradually losing its connection to the physical world it once described.

One of contemporary cinema’s true singulars, Rivers (TWO YEARS AT SEA, A SPELL TO WARD OFF THE DARKNESS) crafts films that drift between documentary, ethnography, speculative fiction, and ethereal invention—works devoted to marginal worlds, alternative ways of living, and the possibilities that exist beyond the rhythms of contemporary society. Winner of the Pardo Verde at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival, MARE’S NEST further establishes Ben Rivers as one of contemporary cinema’s most adventurous artists while standing as his most immersive, emotionally resonant, and hauntingly beautiful work to date—a lyrical meditation on language, memory, myth, and what human life might become beyond the ruins of the contemporary world.

Dir. Ben Rivers, 2025, 98 mins, UK/France/Canada, English/Catalan, Unrated, Color and Black & White, Digital

Tickets: $12 (All Screenings Are In Person Only)

Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

Los Angeles Filmforum is the city’s longest-running organization dedicated to weekly screenings of experimental film, documentaries, video art, and experimental animation. In 2025 they celebrated their 50th year. www.lafilmforum.org

ADVISORY DISCLAIMER

With some exception, The Philosophical Research Society’s 7th House Screenings does not typically provide advisory warnings about potentially upsetting content or subject matter, as sensitivities are particular to each viewer. Please be sure to read event listings, research on the web, or visit Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com for thorough info on content and age-appropriateness. If you have any specific content advisory questions, please email [email protected].

CONTENT DISCLAIMER

The views, opinions, and thoughts expressed within exhibited works are solely those of their creators and may not represent those of the Philosophical Research Society (PRS), its affiliates, or any individuals associated with PRS. Screenings are intended for educational and entertainment purposes.

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