Dance Films Association and Film at Lincoln Center announced today the complete lineup for the 50th edition of the Dance on Camera Festival, running February 11-14, 2022. The 50th Dance on Camera Festival will be presented in person at the Walter Reade Theater at Film at Lincoln Center, marking the festival’s return to fully in-person programming. The longest-running dance film festival in the world received submissions from more than 37 countries, and it will feature nine ticketed programs and over 32 films during the four-day festival.
“This year’s Dance on Camera Festival not only honors the festival’s half-century history, but also looks forward to the vast artistic potential of the festival’s future,” said Co-Curator Liz Wolff. “This year we’ll spotlight emerging artists from around the globe.”
The festival opens with the World Premiere of Turkish filmmaker Ebru Şeremetli’s thought-provoking and dynamic feature The Moment Remains. “I am very honored to have my film serve as the opening feature presentation to Dance on Camera’s 50th anniversary celebration. The idea of sharing this work in-person with such a global and diverse audience is thrilling,” said Şeremetli. “As an emerging filmmaker myself, it is even more special knowing my work is associated with a festival that is both historically rich and dedicated to supporting artists of the future.”
The four-day festival will continue with a plethora of programs that include both short and feature-length films that will take audiences on a journey around the globe. Festivalgoers will experience perspectives from the coastal landscapes of France to the Australian plains to the bustling cities of Korea to the varied terrains of North America. “It’s a delight to be able to share the countless unique and inspiring stories, such as Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra and Folds of Wind, locally with our audiences in New York,” notes Co-Curator Nolini Barretto. “We look forward to also being able to share these diverse stories in-person in New York City.”
Reflecting on the rich history of dance films, Dance on Camera Festival will close with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Cabaret. Bob Fosse’s film adaptation of the Broadway stage musical not only set a precedent for the future of dance films, but also won eight Academy Awards. “We are excited to present Fosse’s groundbreaking film, Cabaret, which is as powerful today as its release fifty years ago in 1972,” notes Dance Films Association President Ron Honsa. “We couldn’t think of a more fitting tribute to celebrate Dance on Camera’s 50th anniversary than Cabaret—a rare film and a milestone in the explosive growth of dance films. It continues to inspire filmmakers, dancers and audiences to this day.” Cabaret will be screened during the final night of the festival on 35mm film.
The interactive competition #mydancefilm returns to the 50th edition of the Dance on Camera Festival and showcases submissions from filmmakers worldwide. It will be available to the public for free in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Amphitheater at Lincoln Center on Sunday, February 13 at 5:00 PM as part of the festival’s Free Public Programming.
PROGRAMMING AND FILM DESCRIPTIONS
In-person screenings will take place in Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, and all free public programs will take place in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Amphitheater at Lincoln Center.
OPENING NIGHT PROGRAM
The Moment Remains
World Premiere
Ebru Şeremetli, 2021, Turkey, 110m
Turkish with English subtitles
Ebru Şeremetli’s feature depicts the choreography of a dance based on feelings of “unease, anxiety, uncertainty, and obscurity.” It is about being stuck between the memory of migration and a misty view of the future, as well as the struggle of a group of dancers to collectively create, despite the prevailing darkness.
The story begins with a dancer’s return to her homeland in the 2000s after having worked with various choreographers abroad. The film brings together the various layers of artistic representation and politics around the contrasting images of light and the surrounding darkness. Fragmentation of memory through violence silences attempts at coming to terms with the past. On the other hand, the streets reflect the sounds of agents of history. The Moment Remains is an attempt at discovering what movement may represent in the spiral of unresolved political murders, disappearing political prisoners, violence, war, and exile.
Preceded by
Inside Out
Jeff Kuperman, Rick Kuperman, 2021, USA, 3m
A couple faces an accidental trauma on a nondescript Sunday morning, which mirrors the world’s seemingly stable but deeply precarious natural balance.
GLOBAL SHORTS PROGRAM
Eileen
World Premiere
Sue Healey, 2021, Australia, 4m
Eileen Kramer is 107 years old, possibly the oldest performer and choreographer working today. In 1940s Sydney, she was a member of the dance troupe headed by Gertrud Bodenwieser, an influential European choreographer of German Expressionism who fled the war in Europe and settled in Australia. Bodenwieser played a significant role in shaping early Australian modern dance, and her legacy lives on in the work of Eileen Kramer. This film is a collaboration between Australian choreographer/filmmaker Sue Healey and Berlin musicians David Orlowsky (clarinet) and David Bergmüller (lute) for their 2021 album Alter Ego (Warner Classics).
Mahålang
Elliot deBruyn, Nathaniel Brown, Caili Quan, 2021, USA, 18m
Chamorro with English subtitles
Chamorro Filipino choreographer and dancer Caili Quan pays tribute to the family and culture of Guam that sparked her love of music and inspired her dream of dancing. In contemporary dances set to music from the Pacific, Quan explores her own heritage through memories and conversations with her family. Each dance is inspired by a different facet of Guam’s culture: oral storytelling, matrilineal roots, the warrior spirit, and the deep importance of family. Through every story and gesture there is a common thread of mahålang, a Chamorro word encompassing the longing for, and missing of, something, someone, or some place. Weaving a narrative of how collective memory and storytelling preserve where we come from, Mahålang is a love letter to Guam.
You Who Never Arrived
U.S. Premiere
Marius Olteanu, 2021, Romania, 15m
German, Hungarian, and Romanian with English subtitles
The journey of three men—part dance into the unknown, part quest for meaning—animates this film based on Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. “Most experiences are unsayable; they happen in a space that no word has ever entered,” wrote Rilke. And still, there are words that connect people over time, shaping their lives and inextricably linking them together.
Pallae: Womanhood Story (빨래)
Park Sohyun, 2021, South Korea, 26m
Korean with English subtitles
“Have you ever waited for someone?”
Pallae, a production choreographed by Nam Jeongho that premiered in 1993, returns to the stage. A new team of five dancers, including one dancer who had participated in a production of Pallae 15 years ago, spend a night doing their laundry and bathing together, with the washplace doubling as the backdrop stage for Pallae in 2021.
The Nangiarkoothu Artist
New York Premiere
Deepa Nair, 2020, India/USA, 12m
Malayalam with English subtitles
The Nangiarkoothu Artist is a documentary dance portrait of an ethnic artist from Kerala, India. A hybrid piece, this film uses a multi-narrative approach, employing modes of traditional storytelling and a staged dance performance to create a poetic profile of Aparna Nangiar, a young exponent of classical Nangiarkoothu, who practices and teaches the 2,000-year-old Sanskrit dance/theatre art form. Director Deepa Nair’s film attempts to capture the stillness and the meditative qualities inherent in this discipline, and invites the audience to become part of an ethnic dancer’s world and gain a new awareness of an art form so ancient and yet barely known to the larger world.
At the Wall of the Sea (Au Mur de la Mer)
U.S. Premiere
Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, 2020, France, 4m
At the Wall of the Sea is a short dance film that follows the inevitably intertwined rumblings of two humans. Set against the raw landscape of coarse cliffs and green algae–coated boulders on the Atlantic coast of France, the film imagines regret as a frontier borrowed from our own future. The duo stumbles, soaked and soiled, through fading remnants of Hitler’s terrifying Atlantic Wall in Cap Gris-Nez. They pull and tear at one another, crudely easing one another’s falls and helping each other stand once more. Featuring the striking and solemn Astrid Sweeney and Jonas Vandekerckhove, At the Wall of the Sea leaves us with one eye rinsed by sea water, and the other eye full of sand.
WORK IN PROGRESS SCREENING – FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMMING
Call Me Dancer
Leslie Shampaine, Pip Gilmour, In Production, USA, 50m
When Manish, a hip-hop dancer, accidentally walks into a ballet class in Mumbai, his world opens up and a passion is born. The tough ballet master, Yehuda, recognizes his talent and dares him to fulfill his dreams of dancing professionally, giving him the courage to defy family, culture, and poverty.
Call Me Dancer is a story of hope, heartache, and hard work. Manish and Yehuda search to uncover who and what they are. Yehuda seeks a purpose and a place to call home. Manish dreams of dancing on the world stage, but struggles to break free from the confines of his own economic and social circumstances. In the process, they change each other’s lives.
SHORTS PROGRAM I
Together One Time
World Premiere
Casey Brooks, 2021, USA, 3m
As if we needed any more reminding that we’re living through unprecedented times, our phones spew an endless barrage of hate, violence, and doom. With each waking moment, headlines remind us that women are (and have always been) targets of the ill-doings of people all around the world. Recently our attention has turned to the threefold rise in hate crimes toward Asian Americans and Southeast Asians during the pandemic; in particular, the violence directed at Asian women in the latest act of domestic terrorism in the U.S. demands a response. Wonderland Magazine has teamed up with NYC’s Banji Twerk Team for a seamless and powerful one-take performance to a remix of Marlena Shaw’s “Woman of the Ghetto.” Inspired by the Womanist theory put forth by Alice Walker, the film aims to unite every woman with the feminist movement at the intersection of race, class, and gender oppression. We aspire to honor all the women who strive for inclusion and equality.
Outside My Window (Face à ma fenêtre)
New York Premiere
Sonia Gemmiti, 2020, Canada, 7m
A young woman stares out her window, working up the courage to step outside. Completed before stay-at-home orders were a daily reality, first-time solo director Sonia Gemmiti presents an expressionistic exploration of her own agoraphobia and isolation. Shot in ultra-widescreen black and white by François Gamache, with music by Jean-Michel Blais, choreography by Mairéad Filgate, and—at its heart—a powerful lead performance by Eva Kolarova, Outside My Window is that rare instance of personal filmmaking that captures the larger reality of our time. Winner of the “Make Your Life a Masterpiece” prize at the 2021 Asolo Art Film Festival and recipient of a Special Mention at the Amarcort Film Festival, Outside My Window makes its New York debut at Dance on Camera.
Forgotten Song
Tobin Del Cuore, Tyler Gilstrap, Samuel Lee Roberts, 2020, USA, 11m
Spanish with English subtitles
An eccentric character navigates a cityscape with an absurdly large mirror. In time, he is transported to a suspended alternate world where we experience his desire to achieve the impossible.
On Mending
World Premiere
Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, Emilie Leriche, 2021, Italy, 15m
A reflection on the beauty and inevitability of impermanence, On Mending is a short dance film that follows a community’s attempt to process overwhelming loss. The film and its characters wind their way through a vast and barren alpine landscape, an abstract land of memory and nostalgia. At its root, On Mending is a meditation on support, community, and the action of releasing what we can no longer carry with us.
WeAIghT
New York Premiere
Jennifer Archibald, Andrew Cashin, 2020, USA, 5m
WeAIghT examines the emotional impact of the Black Lives Matter movement during the 2020 protests in New York City. The film features music composed by Philip Hamilton and a solo performance by dancer James Gilmer, a current company member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “I wanted to find the purest of expression that one could find at the core of revolutionary and demanding protests,” said choreographer Jennifer Archibald, a Yale School of Drama instructor and recipient of a Joffrey Ballet’s “Winning Works” commision. “It is a vulnerable image to witness. We must be emotional to understand emotions.”
Once There Was III
New York Premiere
Nina McNeely, 2021, USA, 6m
Three women are bound to a shared soul, oscillating between the throes of brutality and piety. A visceral display of true sisterhood—they suffer together, thrive together, and bleed together—Once There Was III is a mixed-media creation combining dance with live projection-mapping on the body. It is an exploration into ancient iconography, universal archetypes and their relationship with the female form, and spirit throughout history. It is a reflection of the struggle of existence through the isolation and dystopian landscape of our current times. It was created to represent a beacon of hope and to inspire faith in the possibility of a beautiful future.
Porch Light
New York Premiere
Ned Farr, 2021, USA, 6m
A young woman returns to her hometown in search of the childhood she left behind, but realizes that in order to find it, she must discover the child within herself.
I Just Wanna Dance
New York City Premiere
Amanda Beane, 2021, USA, 4m
When two dancers are asked to partner at an audition, each struggles with the flip sides of homophobia before finding common footing. Set in a Victorian ballroom overlooking the San Francisco skyline, the film takes us on a journey through genres of partner dancing, addressing homophobia and effeminophobia. Their routine rooted in hustle, the dancers move through the form’s various influences, such as mambo and Lindy Hop, while integrating elements of contemporary hip-hop. During this duet, they develop a relationship, break through societal norms, and come to terms with platonic intimacy. Shooting with a remote head and jib, the camera sweeps through the fast-paced choreography, capturing hustle as a transcendent force of Black joy and tenderness.
FEATURE PROGRAM
Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra
New York Premiere
Nel Minchin, Wayne Blair, 2020, Australia, 96m
Firestarter marks Bangarra Dance Theatre’s 30th anniversary. Taking us through Bangarra’s birth and spectacular growth, it tells the story of how three young Aboriginal brothers—Stephen, David, and Russell Page—turned the newly born Australian dance group into a First Nations cultural powerhouse. But, as Firestarter reveals, the company’s international success–The New York Times called Bangarra “a company like no other”–came at a huge personal cost. As it enters its fourth decade, Stephen must lead the company alone, finding a way to channel grief and sorrow into the strength to forge ahead, with a new generation of Indigenous dancers relying on his genius to tell their stories. Through the eyes of the brothers and company alumni, Firestarter explores the loss and reclaiming of culture, the burden of intergenerational trauma, and, crucially, the power of art as a messenger for social change and healing.
Preceded by
Folds of Wind (طيات الريح )
North American Premiere
Samir T. Radwan, 2021, Egypt, 3m
The mirroring of nature to the human condition physically and emotionally is almost tangible. The desert is carved and shaped by differential weathering and the human being is moved by emotions. This affinity is portrayed by a contemporary performance in the middle of the white desert of Egypt, showcasing the complementary behavior of both the human and the desert. The four stages presented in this film can be understood as irritation, anger, flow, and acceptance, which in this work are connected with the white desert that is also in constant progression because of the wind.
KIDS PROGRAM
The Secret Theatre
New York Premiere
Jessica Wright, Morgann Runacre-Temple, 2020, UK, 57m
In a deserted city, a young boy stumbles into a theatre. He wanders through the auditorium, where rows of velvet chairs, draping curtains, and chandeliers seem to lie in lonely wait for audiences to return. The theatre may be empty, but the show will go on. In this mélange of popular festive ballets, the worlds of the Snow Queen and the Sugar Plum Fairy collide when the theatre bursts into life. Throughout this spectacular, feature-length film, you’ll be treated to an extraordinary show filled with acrobats, snowflakes, clowns, princes, and—of course—beautiful ballerinas. Featuring performances from the full Scottish Ballet Company, this Christmas special will be an unforgettable adventure for the entire family.
The Wind and The Kite
Robert Machoian, Keely Song, 2021, USA, 7m
To deepen this tale of marital strife, directors Robert Machoian and Keely Song subvert the approach of the conventional dance short, choosing at moments to focus on the faces of the dancers and at other times to remove them from the frame. Composer William Ryan Fritch’s sweeping orchestral score and the seemingly extraterrestrial landscape only serve to heighten the juxtaposition between intimacy and distance in this boundary-pushing piece.
PERSEVERANCE
Los Perros del Barrio Colosal (The Dogs of the Colossal Neighborhood)
New York Premiere
Drew L. Brown, Omar Román De Jesús, 2021, USA, 12m
Through the exaggerated mannerisms of daytime television, the six characters of Los Perros del Barrio Colosal take us on a wild romp through the challenges of creative decision-making. Diving dramatically into the adventure of an imagination yet to be physicalized, they ask us to consider the far side of the moments when our ideas threaten, with disjointed urgency, to swallow us whole. Los Perros del Barrio Colosal was co-directed by Student Academy Award–winning filmmaker Drew L. Brown and Omar Román De Jesús, Artistic Director of New York City–based dance company Boca Tuya.
Firebird Rising
David Roseberry, 2021, USA, 18m
Directed by David Roseberry, Firebird Rising documents Memphis-based Collage Dance Collective’s painstaking commitment to creating and presenting choreographer Kevin Thomas’s latest work amid uncertain times. In this film, an iconic classical ballet is reenvisioned to affirm the beauty and power of women from the African diaspora. Set in an enchanted jungle, Kevin Thomas’s Firebird explores moments of magic, love, and redemption through new and refreshing choreography. With social unrest, a global pandemic, and the shuttering of nearly every performing arts organization, Collage Dance—composed of professional company dancers, artistic leadership, and a production crew—deepened their trust and faith in one another. In the “Collage bubble,” this unified group of individual artists created a masterpiece in one of the most difficult times in modern history.
OMEN
New York Premiere
Blake McCord, Justin Clifton, Harlan Taney, 2021, USA, 27m
Through dance and movement, OMEN tells the story of one woman’s exploration of bravery and perseverance, intimately following her as she takes risks and overcomes fears. The film tells the story of our shared interdependence, and the beauty of surrendering to the unknown. OMEN was shot in the Grand Canyon National Park by award-winning filmmakers Harlan Taney, Justin Clifton, and Blake McCord of Sandcast Media. Devised by the groundbreaking Dark Sky Aerial Company, OMEN is a 10-minute dance film with a 17-minute companion documentary created by Firewatch Media.
Places, Please
North American Premiere
Reed Luplau, 2020, USA, 20m
Eight artists meet in a support group to discuss how the COVID-19 shutdown has affected their lives and livelihood. Blending live-theatre and cinematic techniques, the film offers its audience an intimate look into the minds, passions, and struggles of our creators during these unprecedented times. The artists’ journey is a reflection of the human experience, and Places, Please is a theatrical representation of a generation surviving in a global pandemic.
#MYDANCEFILM – FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMMING
#MyDanceFilm: Getting Your Film Out There
Various Artists, 60m
Dance filmmakers, fresh and seasoned alike, engaged the public by posting their films to social media. A selection of these bold new dance films from around the globe make up the festival’s #MyDanceFilm Program.
AN EVENING WITH JACOB JONAS THE COMPANY
Jacob Jonas The Company Screening and Conversation
Jacob Jonas The Company and Various Artists, 2021, USA, 70m
Over the last year Jacob Jonas The Company released an unprecedented 30 short dance films through their platform films.dance. All of these films were creatively directed and produced in-house. They worked with more than 400 artists across 30 countries and reached more than 7.5 million impressions online. This screening event will include a lineup curated by Jacob Jonas The Company along with a moderated conversation between the company and various artists who participated in some of these spectacular films.
SHORTS PROGRAM II
Memories of the Future
New York Premiere
Dance Collective Arnhemse Meisjes, 2020, The Netherlands, 12m
Memories of the Future is a short dance film by Dance Collective Arnhemse Meisjes. This film tells the story of one and each person at the same time. We dance a powerful life path in which experiences from the past and memories from the future emerge. They come together in the present moment. This is a human story: your story. A story of your ancestors and your (grand)children. Do the future and the past run parallel in the present? Everything is allowed, because everything turns; everything comes, everything passes. Like the seasons, a cycle of life and death. We fall and get up again. We turn, until the present moment is all that remains. That’s what we can hold on to. Here, now. You, me, we.
Child of the screen
New York Premiere
Nathan Hirschaut, 2021, USA, 5m
Child of the screen is a short dance/theatre film about a boy who is raised and shaped by the screen, and other mediating forces.
Widow’s End
New York Premiere
Jil Guyon, 2020, USA, 5m
The perils of isolation and climate instability meet in this split-screen video set against the backdrop of a volcanic red-rock quarry in southern Iceland. Caught in an extreme, inhospitable landscape, a bereaved woman finds herself enveloped in a swath of black fabric. The intensity of her stillness combines with a stark sound score to form a slowly shifting visual tableau that explores the terrain where inner and outer realities collide.
They Dance With Their Heads
New York Premiere
Thomas Corriveau, 2021, Canada, 8m
English and French with English subtitles
The severed head of a choreographer is held captive by an eagle on a desert island. With a dazzling mastery of drawing and painting, this animated short unexpectedly takes us into the sensitive world of an artist madly in love with dance. “The film was developed from a series of workshops with fabulous dancers in Montréal,” director Thomas Corriveau explains. “As I was drawing and painting, I wanted the energy of the colored lines to fully participate in the emergence of a strong and sensitive bodily presence for the dancers.”
Liminality
New York Premiere
Jennifer Akalina Petuch, Annali Rose, 2020, USA, 8m
Liminality is an underwater dance film inspired by the inevitable journey ballet dancers face when retiring from their professional careers. Co-directors Annali Rose and Jennie Akalina Petuch explore the question of “What happens when the fairy tale is over?” Looking to Swan Lake as the quintessential classical ballet, Liminality imagines what Odette may have experienced upon plunging to her watery death in the depths of the lake. There is no prescribed happily-ever-after; instead, you will witness a moment of suspended reality, disenchantment, vulnerability, self-discovery, and transformation. Here, the heroine explores the space in between life and death, coming to terms with the end of her world as she knew it, and finding the strength and courage to move into a new existence—one that is full of possibilities yet to be written.
Evidence of it All
New York Premiere
Drew Jacoby, 2021, USA, 9m
Film director and choreographer Drew Jacoby (Nederlands Dans Theater, Royal Ballet of Flanders) explores the realm of the seven deadly sins in her first short dance film for SFDanceworks. With an original story by Pulitzer Prize–winning librettist Royce Vavrek, the film captures a woman in solitude, pulsating through her memories. Drawing inspiration from iconic artists Maya Deren and Peter Lindbergh, Jacoby’s graphic movement style and aesthetic give the film an eerie, absurd, and sometimes surreal sensuality. With narration by Golden Globe–winning and Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike and sound design by the brilliant composer Mikael Karlsson (an Alicia Keys and Lykke Li collaborator), Princess Grace Award–winning contemporary dancer Meredith Webster (Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet) takes the viewer on an intimate and riveting journey through her troubled mind, shedding light on the perpetual inner carnal struggle.
Dive
New York Premiere
Oscar Sansom, 2021, UK, 13m
Scottish Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence Sophie Laplane partners with James Bonas (director of the 2019 ballet The Crucible) and filmmaker Oscar Sansom to create Dive, a short film inspired by French artist Yves Klein and what has become the world’s most famous shade of blue. Expect Laplane’s quintessentially quirky choreography paired with striking visuals in this teal-toned treat.
CLOSING NIGHT PROGRAM
Cabaret
Bob Fosse, 1972, USA, 35mm, 124m
Celebrating its 50th anniversary on February 13, 2022, Cabaret is no ordinary movie musical. Adapted from Bob Fosse’s hit Broadway show, this film—starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey, and Helmut Griem—set a record for winning the most Oscars of any film (eight) without taking home Best Picture. Both choreographed and directed by Fosse, this seminal dance film will be presented in 35mm on the closing night of the 50th Dance on Camera Festival.