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RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

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A Chair: in six parts

Directed by Anna Grimshaw

2013 – 42'

Synopsis

A poem about a chair.
In 1960, Bill Coperthwaite bought 300 acres of wilderness in Machiasport, Maine. Influenced by the poetry of Emily Dickinson and by the back to the land movement of Scott and Helen Nearing, Bill Coperthwaite dedicated himself to what he called “a handmade life.”

Until his death in 2013, Bill Coperthwaite lived and worked in the forest. He was a builder of yurts, and a maker of spoons, bowls and chairs.

A Chair: in six parts, a meditation on time and process, explores the rhythm, movement and poetry of dwelling in the world.

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.