With a wide-ranging selection of 16 programs over five days, the 46th edition of the Dance on Camera Festival, July 20-24 in NYC, is a treat for dance lovers of all stripes, offering everything from tap to classical ballet to mime.
Bookending the festival on opening and closing night are two exciting world premieres: Mark Wilkinson’s American Tap, an in-depth documentary about the history and resurgence of the vibrant dance style, and Maia Wechsler and Lise Friedman’s If the Dancer Dances, which follows the restaging of iconic choreographer Merce Cunningham’s RainForest for a new dance company and a new generation. Dance on Camera also presents two Special Screenings: Steven Cantor’s Ballet Now, which screens on opening day of the festival and follows New York City Ballet prima ballerina Tiler Peck as she pursues her dream to connect international dancers through an exhilarating fusion of dance forms; and a program of Spike Jonze dance shorts curated by the maverick himself, featuring never-before-seen footage.
Additional highlights include unearthed curio The Mime Marcel Marceau, which debuts footage of the famed artist shot in 1964 but rights-locked until now; and the world premieres of Marie-Hélène Rebois’s Lucinda Childs, Great Fugue by Beethoven, in which the modern dance legend takes on the master composer; and Trey McIntyre’s self-reflective doc Gravity Hero, filmed after the sudden decision to shut down his celebrated dance company.
The festival also boasts a number of free screenings and events, including panel discussions with artists and filmmakers; a Francisco Graciano photography exhibition spanning his career in the Paul Taylor Dance Company; a work-in-progress screening of Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, chronicling the history and legacy of one of Jones’s most admired works; and more.
FILMS AND DESCRIPTIONS
Screenings held at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street)
Opening Night
American Tap
Mark Wilkinson, USA, 2018, 90m
World Premiere
The history of tap is an ever-evolving panorama of inclusion, adversity, and reinvention. This in-depth documentary is an absorbing narrative about a quintessentially American dance form—from its origins, to the historic and cultural events that shaped it, to its present day rebirth as a vibrant art form. Featuring archival footage of classic tap stars and highlighting the new generation of emerging talent, and commentary from historians, choreographers, and hoofers, this chronicle inspires and enlightens.
Preceded by
Lil Buck with Icons of Modern Art
Andrew Margetson, UK, 2016, 4m
New York Premiere
Chicago-born dancer Lil Buck takes London-based filmmaker Margetson on a light-footed tour through the halls of the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Closing Night
If the Dancer Dances
Maia Wechsler, with Lise Friedman, USA, 2018, 83m
World Premiere
Dance is unlike any other art. If a dance is not danced, it vanishes. Former Cunningham dancer Lise Friedman and director Maia Wechsler follow a group of New York City’s top modern dancers as they reconstruct RainForest, an iconic work by the legendary Merce Cunningham. Viewers are invited into the poetic, tactile world of the dance studio, where former Cunningham dancers teach RainForest to the Stephen Petronio Company, breathing new life into this enigmatic work. Timed to coincide with Cunningham’s centenary in 2019, the film throws light on the mysteries of dance-making, revealing what it takes to keep a dance alive.
Preceded by
Diptych
Kiira Benzing, USA, 2018, 12m
World Premiere
Movement and art blend in this film about dreams, memories, painting, and the imagining of a new dance in homage to esteemed artist practitioners.
Special Screening
Ballet Now
Steven Cantor, USA, 2018, 75m
New York Premiere
Ballet Now provides a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the world of ballet and what it takes to create a one-of-a-kind dance extravaganza. Featuring New York City Ballet’s Prima Ballerina Tiler Peck—the first ever woman to be asked to curate the L.A. Music Center’s famed BalletNOW™ program—and a diverse cast of world-class dancers from around the globe, the film follows Tiler as she tries to execute her groundbreaking vision of mashing together tap, hip-hop, ballet and even clown artistry. With less than a week to pull it all off, Tiler faces the mounting pressures of not only dancing in multiple pieces but also producing and directing this high-profile event. The success of the performances rests squarely on her shoulders. Will she pull it off? The film is produced by Elisabeth Moss, Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions, and Stick Figure Studios. A Hulu Documentary.
Preceded by:
Makers Who Inspire: Lauren Lovette
Henry Thong, Australia, 2018, 7m
As a principal dancer at one of the world’s most elite dance institutions and one of the only female choreographers to establish a significant presence at a major ballet company, New York City Ballet’s Lauren Lovette discusses her creative process, her love for her art, and what inspires her as a choreographer.
Special Screening
Spike Jonze Is a Dancer, USA, 2018, 60m
World Premiere
Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze is renowned for such feature films as Her and Being John Malkovich, but he is equally beloved for his collaborations with music and dance artists, and for his work with brands—most recently, the Apple HomePod ad featuring F.K.A. Twigs. This special program features Jonze as choreographer, filmmaker, and dance storyteller, presenting several of his greatest hits on a big screen, as well as a dance-themed montage created specially for this event, including never-before-seen footage that, per Jonze “spans the past 300 years”, displaying a unique side of this visionary artist.
A Man of Dance (Un homme de danse)
Marie Brodeur, Canada, 2016, 84m
New York Premiere
English and French with subtitles
An artist touched by history, Vincent Warren danced under the baton of Igor Stravinsky; collaborated on a film with Norman McLaren; and had love poems dedicated to him by Frank O’Hara. This film makes a valuable contribution by documenting his unusual life, from its start in New York’s buzzing 1960s art and dance scene, to an illustrious career as a principal dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. An irrepressible raconteur in both English and French, Warren narrates his picaresque adventures, which are interspersed with archival material that reveals both his charisma as a solo performer and his generosity as a dance partner.
Preceded by:
Scalamare
Jiri Kylian, Netherlands, 2017, 10m
U.S. Premiere
In 2015, Jiri Kylian was inspired by a visit to the Ancona War Memorial and its impressive staircase leading to the Adriatic. Thus, a simple narrative was born: an elderly couple celebrate the anniversary of their honeymoon, which began on these very steps. Many years later they are here, looking back on their lives and looking forward to an uncertain future. Kylian’s choreography is characterized by unexpected movements and gestures that border on the surreal, tinged with melancholy and a touch of the divine.
Bournonville Legacy: Three Short Films
Photographer and filmmaker Signe Roderik sets out to honor the legacy of visionary ballet master August Bournonville (1805-1879) with three short films that illuminate aspects of his famed Danish School, which produced such brilliant artists as Erik Bruhn and Peter Martins. All films in Danish with English subtitles.
Featuring:
Bournonville Today
Signe Roderik, Denmark, 28min
U.S. Premiere
Excerpts from Romantic Era ballets, including some rarities, combine with commentary by dance critics Deborah Jowitt, Alastair Macaulay, and others.
The Art of Silence
Signe Roderik, Denmark, 27m
New York Premiere
An examination of character dance as a key element in classical story ballets, with leading exponent Morten Eggert as guide.
When I Dance
Signe Roderik, Denmark, 35m
World Premiere
The Royal Danish Ballet’s training, as seen through the eyes of pre-teens Ella and Sylvester, two of the school’s rising stars.
Fire and Ashes, Making the Ballet RAkU
Shirley Sun, USA, 2017, 60m
New York Premiere
Set in historic Kyoto, the fictional story of RAkU is based on a true event, the burning of a sacred temple by a deranged monk. Yuri Possokhov’s choreography for prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan mingles Japanese Noh theater and elements of Butoh with classical and contemporary ballet styles to create powerful dance drama. The film begins with Russian-born Possokhov and his team making plans over vodka and borscht, then moves into an intense rehearsal process, and culminates in a breathtaking performance by Yuan Yuan and her male partners—Damian Smith and Pascal Molat—as they enact this passionate tale of love and revenge.
Preceded by:
Birds in the Earth
Marja Helander, Finland, 2018, 11m
Young ballet students Birit and Katja Haarla move as regal birds through a beautiful but contested area of Scandinavia, where the indigenous Sami people may be under siege. The film, simultaneously humorous and melancholy, hints at ideas of land misappropriation and fading traditional customs.
Gravity Hero
Trey McIntyre, USA, 2018, 70m
World Premiere
In 2014, after ten years of building his dance company in Boise, Idaho, to great acclaim, Trey McIntyre shut it down. Its sudden and mysterious end is the backdrop of McIntyre’s introspective documentary, which explores themes of creativity, loss, and transformation embodied in the dances choreographed during the company’s life. Excerpts from some of his best known dances include “Ma Maison,” inspired by his encounters with the New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band; “Mercury Half Life,” set to the music of Queen; and the elegiac “Bad Winter.” McIntyre displays a remarkable ability to create work both idiosyncratic and accessible.
Preceded by:
Between Yourself and Me
Lucas Smith, USA, 2017, 28m
World Premiere
This film explores the world of Third Rail Projects, the critically acclaimed company behind the long-running hit Then She Fell, as well as the methods of its artistic directors Zach Morris, Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett. Included are never-before-seen excerpts from that show as well as others, all interspersed with interviews of experts in the field, to offer a look at the flourishing world of immersive theater.
Her Magnum Opus
Marta Renzi, USA, 2017, 61m
New York Premiere
A group of friends gather to celebrate the teacher who has been a constant in their lives and whose little country house had been a refuge for them over the years. Choreographer Renzi, a prolific director of shorts, makes an auspicious feature debut using a versatile cast culled from the worlds of film, Broadway, and dance, creating a dreamlike story of friendship told almost entirely through movement. New York theater and dance performer Aileen Passloff appears as a version of herself.
Preceded by:
Rhizophora
Julia Metzger-Traber and Davide De Lillis, Germany, 2015, 17m
New York Premiere
Forty years after the end of the Vietnam War, its damaging effects remain. The film follows a group of Vietnamese youths with disabilities as they work with a Berlin-based performing duo to create a performance that testifies to the human ability to flourish even under the most toxic circumstances.
Lucinda Childs, Great Fugue by Beethoven
Marie-Hélène Rebois, France, 2017, 80m
World Premiere
English and French with English subtitles
Beethoven’s Great Fugue may not be an obvious choice for postmodern dance. But Lucinda Childs, known for her cool minimalist approach, choreographed it for the Lyon Opera Ballet in 2016. The filmmaker Marie-Hélène Rebois, who has a knack for getting inside a choreographic process, was there to document the rehearsals and performance. Through this film, one gets a sense of how Childs builds the dance sequences architecturally and spatially, how she communicates with her dancers in informal exchanges, and how she stays above the fray, at once distant and fully present.
Preceded by:
Bhairava
Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer, Canada, 2017, 14m
New York Premiere
Dancer-choreographer Shantala Shivalingappa evokes the duality of the powerful deity Shiva as both destroyer and protector as she performs a symbolic dance that combines gesture and abstract body language to a rhythmic musical score against the backdrop of the spectacular ancient ruins of a South Indian village.
Maurice Béjart, The Soul of Dance
Henri de Gerlache and Jean de Garrigues, Belgium, 2018, 53m
French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
This is a detailed portrait of the famous French-born dancer-choreographer (1927-2007), who brought a distinctive theatrical flair to his ballet and opera productions. Best known for his sensual tabletop ballet set to Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero,” Béjart connected with audiences through a diverse blend of traditions. The filmmakers explore his life and creative output via dance excerpts, which include a glimpse of the young Suzanne Farrell; archival material of his family; and recent interviews with dancers and co-workers.
Preceded by:
The Mime Marcel Marceau
Dominique Delouche, France, 2018, 52m
World Premiere
Filmmaker Dominique Delouche shot this footage of the famous mime in 1964, but it was not until 2017 that he was able to acquire the image rights to edit and digitalize the film. Marceau (1923-2017) brought the art of mime from its roots in kabuki and commedia dell’arte to a level of brilliance previously unrealized. The film is composed of brief sketches shot during Marceau’s lifetime: his iconic creation “Bip,” always on the run from cops; the Mask Merchant; and the Seven Deadly Sins. Inspired by Chaplin, Marceau in turn inspired Michael Jackson, who makes a cameo appearance.
NY Export: Opus Jazz
Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes, USA, 2010, 60m
In 1958, Jerome Robbins’s “ballet in sneakers” became a hit and toured the world. In 2010, New York City Ballet dancers Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi reimagined the Robbins choreography for the screen, taking a new generation of City Ballet dancers—Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck among the group—to various locations around the city where these character-driven interludes take place. With its jazzy score and urban vibe, the film moves with the rhythms of the city that so often inspired Robbins. A brief documentary about the making of Opus Jazz will also be included in the program.
Q&A with dancers Georgina Pazcoguin (featured in the film) and dancer-actress Sondra Lee
Perfectly Normal for Me
Catherine Tambini, USA, 2017, 60m
In this intimate documentary, a group of kids from ages 5 to 15 reveal what it’s like to live with a variety of physical and developmental challenges. Alexandria, Jake, Caitlin, and Veronica demand to be included in a world that largely avoids them. As this moving narrative unfolds, the kids’ devoted parents seek out opportunities for them to feel valued, including a unique after school dance program in Queens, which is the focus of much of the film’s action. There, the kids join a team of dancers, helpers, and teen volunteers with an ambitious goal: a spring recital.
Preceded by:
Gulliver, a Giant in the Bijlmer
U.S. Premiere
Juliette Stevens, Netherlands, 2018, 26m
Dutch with English subtitles
A group of primary school pupils from the Bijlmer, an enormous housing project in Amsterdam, participate in an innovative dance program in which they share their dreams of an ideal living environment against the background of an unruly reality.
Special Programs
DFA Global—Three Short Films
Dance Films Association launches DFA Global, an international program that provides a platform of support and dialogue with global screen dance partners and producers, and which extends the festival’s commitment to screening films from all over the world. The inaugural selections hail from Canada, China, and Brazil.
An Improbable Dream
Lionel Chetwynd, USA, 2016, 44m
Using archival footage and personal recollection, this documentary offers a no-holds-barred picture of the rigorous training demanded of youngsters who dreamed of becoming ballet dancers at the famed National Ballet of Canada in the era of founder-director Betty Oliphant. The film focuses on the academy’s 1981 alumni, which range from the internationally known (Rex Harrington) to those whose who did not continue their training. Recalling their experience as a time of anxiety mixed with hope, they are today confident people who have found their place in the world.
Screening with:
Fate (Nuo)
Xiaojao Hu, China, 2017, 28m
U.S. Premiere
Chinese with English subtitles
An exploration of the origins of the Chinese traditional “mask dance,” this film features works
created by Professor Guo Lei, President of the Beijing Dance Academy. He draws on the
characteristic features of traditional folk dance from his home province of Jiangxi, focusing on head
and hand gestures and weaving the traditional form with contemporary choreography and
performance.
Screening with:
20 Years of Sun (20 anos de sol)
Carlos Mach and Ariela Dorf, Brazil, 2018, 3m
Dance, music, and fashion combine to create irresistible magic in this short film produced by FARM, a women’s wear company based in Rio de Janeiro, as part of a dance-infused media campaign celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Shorts Program: Narrative
(TRT: 68min)
Apache Crew
Yuriy Semenyuk, USA, 2017, 10m
A Ukrainian dance team performs at Coney Island in this one-take black-and-white dazzler.
Cold
Sven Niemeyer, Germany, 2017, 6m
New York Premiere
A mother’s love turns cold in the struggle to care for her child.
Competing for Sunlight: Ash
Dagmar Dachauer, Austria, 2017, 5m
New York Premiere
A melancholy ode to an endangered species set to music by Tom Waits.
Hypra
Tim Jockel, Germany, 2018, 3m
U.S. Premiere
Dance and digital art merge in this lyrical solo performance.
Impetu’s: Flamenco’s Driving Force
Lulo Rivero, 2017, 5m
New York Premiere
Jesus Carmona tells a story with his own brand of flamenco, filmed in various Miami locations.
In the Space Between
Herve Cohen, USA, 2017, 6m
New York Premiere
Two strangers meet on a subway and embark on a journey, real or imagined. This is a project of San Francisco Dance Film Festival’s Co-Laboratory, in which filmmakers and choreographers are paired together and given one week to make a film.
Jelanii’s Dance
Maggie Piazza Carroll, USA, 2017, 4m
Jelanii has been through tough times, but she bursts through the screen with a tenacity and drive that prove she is a survivor.
Night Dancing
Barney Cokeliss, UK, 2016, 6m
Nightly, Bob sees a beautiful young woman dancing outside his window. He is transfixed and wonders if she is real. Then things get complicated.
Oh! Million Fist!
Hugo Cho, Hong Kong, 2017, 8m
U.S. Premiere
Using the techniques of action moviemaking, martial arts dancer Cho collaborates with fight director Master Yuen Fai to create original choreography based on fight scenarios.
Sweet in the Morning
Andree Ljutica, USA, 2016, 5m
New York Premiere
This dance journey to reconnect with loved ones who have passed away was filmed at the Angel Orensanz Center on the Lower East side, an ecstatic solo danced in a cathedral-like setting by Darrell Payne and choreographed by the late Leni Wylliams to a rendition by vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin.
The Icons
Mitchell Rose, United States, 2017, 4m
New York Premiere
Alternative interpretations of signage from America’s favorite generic couple, The Icons.
Uthica
Baruq Gibran Seth, Mexico, 2017, 8m
U.S. Premiere
Like actors in a Buñuelian action-adventure, a couple, masked and bizarrely costumed, perform a violent acrobatic duet that suggests a breakup. They enter a dream world of surreal characters and moving objects and eventually re-emerge restored.
Vola
Ned Farr, United States, 2017, 6m
New York Premiere
A young dancer remembers and relives her struggle for perfection. Shot at Teatro di Torino in Italy with two Italian dancers whose minimal dialogue needs no translation.
Shorts Program: Experimental
(TRT: 67min)
Alien Threads
Eva Ingolf, USA, 2018, 6m
New York Premiere
An original animation about spiders, webs, and DNA, inspired by a viewing of Louise Bourgeois’s sculptures at MoMA.
Battle
Shelley Lewis, USA, 2017, 4m
New York Premiere
Film meets music video as two dancers engage in a duel of escalating weaponry that turns dark and humorous.
Black Out
Philippe Saire, Switzerland, 2017, 17m
New York Premiere
Three dancers and three towels lie in neat squares as if on a beach. The placid scene is disrupted by falling black pigment. The floor turns into a canvas and the bodies into brushes.
Bleeding and Burning
Guillaume Marin, Canada, 2017, 2m
New York Premiere
An eerie encounter between a malleable human form and a galaxy unknown.
Digital Afterlives
Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman, Australia, 2017, 5m
New York Premiere
A witty, whimsical meditation on free will, identity, and the afterlife with a touch of Franz Liszt.
Palace of the Infinite
Kathy Rose, USA, 2018, 4m
New York Premiere
Rose’s mesmerizing encounter with a variety of orchid beings and her own unstoppable imagination.
Sculpt the Motion
Devis Venturelli, Italy, 2017, 6m
U.S. Premiere
Art and architecture unite in this performance of shifting metallic shapes that skim the ground like futuristic sculptures on parade.
Solitude
Sue Healey, Australia, 2017, 10m
World Premiere
In a confined space, a woman in evident distress breaks free to “caper like a wild thing” in a series of riveting vignettes enacted by choreographer-performer Anca Frankenhaeuser.
Stopgap in Stop Motion
Stephen Featherstone, UK, 2016, 5m
New York Premiere
Photographs of performers in a disabled and non-disabled dance company come to life.The individual artists dance out of the photos and across table tops until the whole company meets to perform in unison.
Time Reversal Symmetry
Evann Siebens, USA, Canada, 2018, 8m
World Premiere
This project is a collaboration between artists and scientists at TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. It’s not as daunting as it sounds: as playful as a vaudeville sketch, the piece uses pedestrian movement and references artists who have worked with the body and media—predominantly Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, and Bruce Nauman.
Free Panels and Events
Work-in-Progress Screening
Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters
We’re pleased to present a work-in-progress screening of Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz’s documentary film about art resurrecting life. Can You Bring It traces the remarkable history and legacy of one of the most important works of art to come out of the AIDS era: Bill T. Jones’s tour de force ballet D-Man in the Waters. Using an extraordinary series of interviews and archival material, and featuring powerful cinematography, this lyrical film documents the making of the dance in 1989, and follows the journey of a group of young dancers learning it in 2016.
#mydancefilm
In order to spread the word about the new summer dates for Dance on Camera Festival, DFA has launched an invitation to demonstrate the impact and power of social media on dance film distribution. Responding to an opportunity for filmmakers to get their work seen—and screened —hundreds of films were posted using the hashtags #mydancefilm and #DOCF20thru24July, adding @dancefilms to flag our attention. A few of the exceptional entries will screen at this event, followed by a dialogue among filmmakers and followers.
Meet the Artist: Karen Pearlman
Meet the director of Woman with an Editing Bench, a biopic about Russian film editor Elizaveta Svilova, unsung creative collaborator on Dziga Vertov’s classic Man with a Movie Camera (1929). Dr. Pearlman is also the author of Cutting Rhythms, Shaping the Film Edit, which derives from her career as a professional dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and articulates her ideas about rhythm in film. She applies her scholarly understanding of kinesthetic empathy to a choreographic sensibility, editing screen dance works made by The Physical TV Company, which she codirects with Richard James Allen.
Capturing Motion: Screening and Jury Discussion
Now in its sixth year, Capturing Motion is a competition in which high school students are invited by Dance Films Association to submit films between one and five minutes in length. This free program will feature a screening of the top five juried films and a conversation with the student filmmakers. The winning work will be screened in the Walter Reade Theater on closing night of the festival. Moderated by Capturing Motion workshop leader and DFA Board member Shawn Bible.
DFA Global Exchange
This informal roundtable discussion will focus on film production as practiced by a wide variety of perspectives across arts organizations, film festivals, and independent producers. Guests will include producers of the Co-Lab of San Francisco Dance Film Festival, the founder of 24fps Dance+Film Weekend Project, the director of Experimental Film Virginia, and others. Join this open exchange about how projects get off the ground, who sits at the table, and what obstacles and opportunities arise. Moderated by Ron Honsa, Chairman of DFA Productions, whose Between Yourself and Me has its premiere at the festival.
Photography Exhibition
Francisco Graciano: Angels in Human Form
This exhibit functions as a fragmented timeline spanning 13 years of the photographer’s life as a dancer in the Paul Taylor Dance Company. For him, the drama unfolding in the wings during a performance often rivaled any virtuosity happening onstage: a superb dancer, minutes ago an angel, soaking wet and freshly birthed from the stage into this private offstage limbo, is now human in form—wounded, flawed, and somehow even more sublime than any onstage perfection.
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