Scott Barley
Personal Info
Known for
Directing
Gender
Male
Birthday
1992-11-11 (32 years old)
Place of Birth
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Scott Barley
Biography
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.
Acting
(2015)
Hours
as Himself
(2015)
Hunter
as Himself
(2015)
The Sadness of the Trees
as Himself
(2013)
Irresolute
as Himself
Crew
The Sea Behind Her Head
Director, Producer, Camera Operator, Sound, Sound Designer, Music, Editor, Cinematography, Director of Photography, Writer, Idea, Compositing Artist, Drone Cinematographer, Drone Pilot, Art Direction, Painter, Special Effects, Researcher, Underwater Camera, Underwater Director of Photography
The Emerald Fire
Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Sound, Editor, Idea, Writer, Compositing Artist
Silent Friend
Production Assistant
The Flesh
Director
Within Without Horizon
Director
(2025)
A Ladder
Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Cinematography, Art Direction, Camera Operator, Compositing Artist, Idea
(2020)
Half Moon
Music, Editor, Director, Cinematography, Sound, Director of Photography, Art Direction, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator, Sound Designer, Painter
(2020)
To the Moon
Director of Photography
(2019)
Wind
Director
(2017)
Sleep Has Her House
Director, Producer, Editor, Sound, Director of Photography, Idea, Cinematography, Music, Compositing Artist, Sound Designer, Camera Operator, Art Direction, Painter, Special Effects, Writer
(2017)
The Green Ray
Sound Designer, Director, Cinematography, Editor, Sound, Compositing Artist, Art Direction, Producer, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Idea
(2017)
Passing
Director, Director of Photography, Cinematography, Camera Operator, Editor, Producer, Idea
(2017)
Womb
Sound Designer, Music, Director, Editor, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Cinematography, Art Direction, Producer, Sound, Compositing Artist, Special Effects, Idea
(2017)
Painting (I)
Director, Director of Photography, Cinematography, Producer, Editor, Idea, Camera Operator
(2016)
Closer
Producer, Cinematography, Director, Editor, Writer, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator, Sound, Sound Designer, Art Direction, Poem, Idea, Director of Photography
(2016)
Hinterlands
Director, Editor, Cinematography, Sound Designer, Director of Photography, Producer, Sound, Music, Idea, Special Effects, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator
(2015)
Hours
Director, Editor, Cinematography, Camera Operator, Producer
(2015)
Shadows
Editor, Director of Photography, Script, Sound mixer, Cinematography, Director, Sound Editor, Sound Designer, Idea
(2015)
The Sadness of the Trees
Director, Music, Sound, Sound Designer, Editor, Producer, Cinematography, Compositing Artist, Idea, Director of Photography
(2015)
Hunter
Editor, Director, Director of Photography, Sound Designer, Idea, Cinematography, Producer, Sound, Music, Compositing Artist, Camera Operator
(2015)
Evenfall
Director, Director of Photography, Idea, Cinematography, Camera Operator, Editor
(2015)
Blue Permanence / Swan Blood
Cinematography, Director, Editor, Sound, Producer, Music, Sound Designer, Director of Photography, Camera Operator
(2014)
Ille Lacrimas
Editor, Director, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Cinematography, Writer, Idea, Compositing Artist, Sound Designer
(2014)
Polytechnique
Cinematography, Director of Photography, Idea, Director, Camera Operator, Producer, Editor, Compositing Artist
(2013)
Nightwalk
Director, Editor, Sound Designer, Cinematography, Compositing Artist, Producer, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Sound, Idea
(2013)
Retirement
Director, Cinematography, Idea, Producer, Sound, Sound Designer, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Compositing Artist, Editor
(2013)
Irresolute
Director, Cinematography, Sound, Compositing Artist, Editor, Sound Designer, Music, Producer, Camera Operator, Director of Photography, Idea
(2012)
The Ethereal Melancholy of Seeing Horses in the Cold
Idea, Cinematography, Director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Producer, Editor