The bizarre, subconscious world of “the Ballenesque” has entered a new dimension.
Inspired by world-renowned artist and photographer Roger Ballen’s first-ever color book, Spirits and Spaces, a companion experimental short film of the same name has officially launched on YouTube. Directed by Gabriella Blumberg, alongside director of photography Gavin Pincus and creative director Marguerite Rossouw, the film translates Ballen’s chaotic, absurd psychological terrain into a living, breathing landscape.
The narrative follows a lone spirit who awakens in a coffin and wanders through six rooms—each inspired by a chapter in the book. As he moves through this transitional interior world, walls breathe, shadows detach, and reality erupts into chaos.
“Creating Spirits and Spaces felt more like making a documentary than a work of fiction—as though placing a camera within the mind of Roger Ballen,” says Blumberg. “The film invites viewers to step beyond the surface of each photograph and inhabit its liminal space.”
Marking a massive milestone in Ballen’s nearly six-decade career, this project is his very first to be expressed entirely in color.
“This place should be viewed not as a location that is real versus unreal, but as an uncanny spot that exists somewhere in each of our minds,” Ballen explains. “Upon viewing the film and images, you will be unclear as to whether and when you have ever been to this Ballenesque universe.”
By launching the film on YouTube simultaneously with the book’s release, the creators aim to offer an immediate, unified, and immersive experience. As Blumberg notes, presenting both works side-by-side allows audiences to experience the book and film in a powerful, ongoing dialogue.