In this deeply intimate and haunting documentary, Alan Berliner posthumously collaborates with his friend and colleague, New York City experimental filmmaker Benita Raphan, who took her life by suicide during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Benita made several beautiful short films over the years -- including portraits of Emily Dickinson, John Nash, Helen Keller, and Buckminster Fuller -- exploring the relationship between mental health, innovation, and creativity.
Drawing from Benita’s personal archive -- films, notebooks, journals, drawings, photographs, home movies, and over 40 hard drives -- Berliner weaves the tapestry of an artist’s life marked by brilliance, whimsy, and existential struggle. The film is an unflinching, lyrical, and ultimately moving study of an artist’s mind, offering profound insights into the intersections of loneliness, inspiration, and human resilience. A portrait of a filmmaker by a filmmaker that's also a film about filmmaking.