Scott Barley
Directing
🎂 1992-11-11
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 RĂo 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 DiĂ©guez (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 LĂ©a Seydoux and Tony Leung Chiu-wai) by Academy Award nominee IldikĂł Enyedi (On Body and Soul, Golden Bear winner, 2017). Danish film critic, and former director of the European Documentary Network, Tue Steen MĂĽller 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.
Cast credits(4)
Production (20)
Sound (40)
Sound Designer
2017
Sound
2017
Sound mixer
2015
Sound Editor
2015
Sound Designer
2015
Sound
2017
Music
2017
Sound Designer
2017
Music
2015
Sound
2015
Sound Designer
2015
Sound Designer
2017
Music
2017
Sound
2017
Sound
2016
Sound Designer
2016
Sound
Sound Designer
Music
Sound Designer
2015
Sound
2015
Music
2015
Sound Designer
2014
Sound Designer
2016
Sound
2016
Music
2016
Sound
2015
Music
2015
Sound Designer
2015
Music
2020
Sound
2020
Sound Designer
2020
Sound
2013
Sound Designer
2013
Sound Designer
2013
Sound
2013
Sound Designer
2013
Music
2013
Sound
2013
Sound
Directing (26)
Crew (28)
Cinematography
2017
Script
2015
Cinematography
2015
Cinematography
2017
Special Effects
2017
Cinematography
2015
Cinematography
2017
Special Effects
2017
Cinematography
2016
Poem
2016
Cinematography
2015
Cinematography
Special Effects
Cinematography
2015
Cinematography
2014
Cinematography
2016
Special Effects
2016
Cinematography
2015
Cinematography
2014
Cinematography
2020
Cinematography
2012
Cinematography
2013
Cinematography
2013
Cinematography
2013
Cinematography
2015
Cinematography
2025
Cinematography
2017
Cinematography
2017
Editing (23)
Visual Effects (16)
Compositing Artist
2017
Compositing Artist
2017
Compositing Artist
2015
Compositing Artist
2017
Compositing Artist
2016
Compositing Artist
Compositing Artist
2015
Compositing Artist
2014
Compositing Artist
2016
Compositing Artist
2014
Compositing Artist
2020
Compositing Artist
2013
Compositing Artist
2013
Compositing Artist
2013
Compositing Artist
2025
Compositing Artist
Art (10)
Camera (47)
Director of Photography
2017
Camera Operator
2017
Director of Photography
2015
Director of Photography
2020
Director of Photography
2017
Camera Operator
2017
Director of Photography
2015
Director of Photography
2017
Camera Operator
2017
Camera Operator
2016
Director of Photography
2016
Director of Photography
2015
Camera Operator
2015
Camera Operator
Director of Photography
Drone Cinematographer
Drone Pilot
Underwater Camera
Underwater Director of Photography
Director of Photography
2015
Camera Operator
2015
Camera Operator
2014
Director of Photography
2014
Director of Photography
2016
Camera Operator
2016
Director of Photography
2015
Camera Operator
2015
Director of Photography
2014
Camera Operator
2014
Director of Photography
2020
Camera Operator
2020
Director of Photography
2012
Camera Operator
2012
Camera Operator
2013
Director of Photography
2013
Camera Operator
2013
Camera Operator
2013
Director of Photography
2013
Director of Photography
2013
Camera Operator
2015
Director of Photography
2025
Camera Operator
2025
Director of Photography
2017
Camera Operator
2017
Director of Photography
Director of Photography
2017
Camera Operator
2017