Benita Raphan

1962 - 2020
Benita Raphan, whose films about the eccentric and inner lives of iconic geniuses garnered multiple awards, including a Guggenheim in 2019, died in January 2021 at the age of 58.

As Benita told StudioDaily: "I am interested in revisiting a life or a career from the very start, from the beginning; the basic concept as initial thought, as an impulse, as an ineffable compulsion, an intuition; to reframe and reinvent an action as simple as one pair of hands touching pencil to paper." Her films appeared on the Sundance Channel, HBO, PBS, and in the UK, and they were screened at numerous festivals including the Sundance, Tribeca, and Telluride, and at the MoMA and Walker Art Center.

Filmmaker Alan Berliner, one of her mentors, wrote: "Benita combines her love of knowledge, her passion for excavating a subject as deeply as possible, a disciplined work ethic, a devoted sense of purpose, along with her world-class graphic arts skill set, into works of beauty, illumination and extreme visual sophistication."

Benita grew up on the Upper West Side and attended Calhoun, Fieldston, and Bronx Science, and graduated high school from City-As-School, where an internship with renowned photographer Albert Watson spurred her artistic journey. She earned a BFA from New York's School of Visual Arts. A college classmate later wrote that Benita "was an iconoclast even back in the early 1980s-the first person I knew who had her nose pierced." While most peers of that era wore black, Benita wore a trademark white dress.

She moved to London to get her MFA from the Royal College of Art, and then on to Paris to work with fashion designers Yohji Yamamoto and Girbaud. Benita returned to New York, lived in an apartment she curated in the style of "flea-market modern," as wrote The New York Times, worked in graphic design and, for the past 15 years, at the School of Visual Arts.

Benita brimmed with friendly curiosity and passion for this world. In Up To Astonishment, her film about Emily Dickinson, Benita used hundreds of flashing images of cobalt and emerald butterflies. Benita too could zoom in on a flower specially planted to attract her and then zoom out to flutter through shadows. The shape of the number "8" and the letter "a" fascinated her, as did the taper of a friend's finger. A prolific correspondent, she crafted distinctive envelopes that moved a lifelong friend to save and savor them.

Quick to celebrate loved ones' good news, Benita helped each one feel special. She championed underdogs---literally in the case of Pete and Rothko whom she adopted and adored. She also volunteered through the New York Public Library's Language and Literacy Program. She cherished the children she knew, particularly her niece and nephews. Friends and colleagues remember her "spirit and style" and "fierce loyalty."

Benita is survived by her mother, Roslyn Raphan; her sister, Melissa Raphan (Tom Rock), their children, Sam, Matt, Julia, and Pete; and extended family.