Bella is an award-winning documentary about the life, work, influence, and impact of Los Angeles-based dancer, choreographer, and arts activist Bella Lewitzky.
Directed by Bridget Murnane, Bella had its World Premiere at the 2022 Madrid International Film Festival and screened at over fifty festivals world-wide, including the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film won seventeen awards including Best Documentary at Dance Camera West. Bella will open at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles on November 10, 2023.
Bella is documentary about Bella Lewitzky, who was referred by dance critic Walter Terry as “one of the greatest American dancers of our age.” The film incorporates rare archival footage of Lewitzky’s performances and interviews with Lewitzky’s former students and dancers, and it demonstrates how a “uniquely Californian” artist with vision and tenacity influenced the lives of her fellow citizens.
Bella Lewitzky joined Lester Horton’s multi-racial modern dance company in 1934, became his lead dancer, and helped develop the Horton Technique. She formed her own dance company in 1966 and continued to dance at the age of 62. Lewitzky was as famous off stage as on, thanks to her battles for freedom of expression against the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990.
She was designated one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition and awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton.
A special photography exhibit will accompany the film’s theatrical release at the Laemmle Royal: “The Horton Dance Group, 1938” featuring Bella Lewitzky, photographed by Viktor von Pribosic and curated by filmmaker Bridget Murnane. And a reconstruction of Lewitzky’s “Game Plan,” by Walter Kennedy, former Lewitzky dancer/rehearsal director, and Associate Producer of the film, will be performed by the students at California State University, Dominguez Hills Theatre and Dance Department in Carson, CA on November 8-11.
Watch the official trailer for Bella.