LA Dance Film Festival November 5th @ 7:30 pm
Thank you for attending our 6th Annual Film Festival!
We are thrilled to share a total of 14 eclectic dance films! After the screening, a short award ceremony and filmmaker Q&A will follow.
Please use the hashtag #LADFF22
Vote For Your Favorite Film: https://forms.gle/q26Z3rEWmc2xgpbQA We will be counting votes from both the in-person event as well as the online event. Please, Vote for only one film per person. You must watch the entire screening to vote.
The winner will be announced on Sunday, November 13th! Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for the announcement!
PROGRAM
Immensity
United States
Directed, Choreographed & Performed by Isabele Rosso
'Immensity' explores the constant mental battle that rages within us as we attempt to attain the unattainable, seeking absolute happiness outside of ourselves. The goal, the prize, the desires we seek ultimately force us to confront our frustrations and fears of inadequacies. We become so steadfast in the pursuit of happiness through external forces, we completely neglect the infinite possibilities that exist within us. With Immensity, creator Isabele Rosso implores the viewer to accept that the horizon is not a destination.
When the Night Falls
Finland
Directed by Kimmo Leed
Choreographed & Performed by Gruppen Fyra
The dance film When the Night Falls tells the story of a woman fleeing the horrors of a collapsing society in the near future. Along the way, she encounters people on whose trust her entire future depends on.
"La fuga dei cervelli"
France
Directed by Mathieu Mondoulet & Thibaut Eiferman
Choreographed by Thibaut Eiferman
"Look at nature and see if you can look at it without your analytical mind coming into play. For example, you look at a tree and you think, "Wow, what a beautiful tree," and it touches you in that moment. You become silent. There is a moment when your mind is gone. You feel the wonder of the beauty you are witnessing. In that moment, there is a pause. Then the mind begins to wonder, "I wonder what kind of tree this is... Is that an oak tree?" and suddenly the communion you had with the tree disappears because you have started to define it. You've removed the magic that you felt in the moment. You don't feel the "tree" aspect anymore, you just see an "oak". You see a word more than you see the tree.
The term "brain drain" is an expression that designates a gradual depletion or flight of youth by emigration to a more favorable place according to its qualities. We decided to use this expression not only in its geographic meaning, but to apply it to a self-transformative interpretation. How can we free ourselves from social constructs, history, identification? How can we drain our labels and find wonder in who we are?
Here is La Fuga.
Here is a quest for sensation.
Here is the connection between our feet and the ground.
Here is the voyage away from our names and towards our nature.
An effort to return to the essence of things.
An effort to feel interconnectedness.
An effort to feel a tree.
Letting go of the labels that define us.
Letting go into each other."
Going Down
United States
Directed & Choreographed by Cailin Leigh Manning
Produced by Cailin Leigh Manning & Tanner Grandstaff
“Going Down is a whimsical dance film set in the 80’s that follows the story of a lonely office clerk who spins a wildly moving fantasy upon a chance encounter in an elevator.”
"A short film for the daydreamers and hopeless romantics. There's no better way to display the intimacy we desire than through movement. In 'Going Down' our lead character spins a wildly romantic fantasy of a playful love story that ends almost as quickly as it began.
Dance and movement surround us daily. Have you ever noticed? Try it today as you’re sitting in traffic, taking a subway, or sitting at a cafe. Can you see the choreography all around you? For me, the dance of daily life is magical. The swirling of a plastic bag in the wind or the momentum it gains when my car drives past it, the traffic patterns of cars on a freeway, or the rhythm and composition of children swinging on a swing set are each phrase of movement that make up the dance we call life. But unfortunately we’ve grown stressed and weary and near sighted to the movement that is both around and within us. Even if you do not consider yourself a dancer, you already are one. Dance is as human as breathing. We danced long before we talked and movement will always be a part of our lives.
I’m constantly seeing the world through the lens of movement and creating ways to tell stories through that movement so that it resonates with our audience. What I feel we have created in “Going Down” is a moment in time where we can set aside the worries and remember how to conjure up the joy in our lives. Our story presents us with the opportunity to remember that dreams and playfulness are a necessity to living a balanced life. If we live in our head too much, we never get anything done, but if we never venture into our fantasties, we’ll also never know the beautiful possibilities life has to offer.
We have all felt loneliness or hopelessness at some point in our lives, especially though out the past three years, and yet we have all continued to press on knowing that there is still beauty in life. “Going Down” is Getfone’s story of pressing on by holding onto the dreams that, although fleeting, stick with her through the times where reality does not suffice. I am beyond excited to work with our dancers and crew to bring this dance to life on film for you all."
Birdsong
Singapore
Directed, Choreographed, and Performed by Claudine Liang
Birdsong tells a tale through the lens of the artist whose voice is stifled in the everyday humdrum of survival.
Through the deliberate use of aleatoric vocals and sensorial stimulation, this film confronts the tension and limits of both freedom and captivity that the human experience can hold at once.
Birdsong echoes a lamentation of oppression but yet also of redemption - an ode to all who wandered and felt lost; but never gave up on their own humanity.
PALACE
Israel
Directed by Omer Ben-David
Conceptualized, Choreographed, and Performed by Megan Rachel Doheny & Ilya Nikurov of Outrun The Bear
“PALACE” is an abstract take on partnership and empathy that exposes a couple as they continuously travel between each other's "mental palaces”, revealing a space in which two emotional worlds simultaneously intertwine and collide.
SHE
Denmark
Directed by Emil Dam Seidel
Choreographed/Performed by Dorotea Saykaly
SHE is a cinematic adaptation of a solo dance performance with the same name.
The original performance work was created and performed by Dorotea Saykaly and premiered at 5’eme Salle at Place des Arts in Montréal, Quebec in 2019.
Inspired by The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, the solo revolved around identity and doubt.
Manifested through movement, distortion and an interview with a phantom interrogator, the original work proposed looking at a questioning body through a female lens.
The cinematic adaptation of the original performance work arose during the first COVID lockdown in 2020 as a collaboration between Dorotea Saykaly and film director Emil Dam Seidel.
“We wanted to make a film that addressed the isolation we were both experiencing but didn't want the work to revolve around covid. -So we tried to create a world on a universal sense of isolation – the digital isolation that has been creeping in between us all through the last decade.”
Bustin’ Loose
United States
Directed and Choreographed by Karla Puno Garcia
A young girl finds herself in an underworld.
Bonheur / Happy Place
Canada
Directed & Written by Maxime Beauchamp
Choreographed/Performed by Chanel Lacasse & Greer Whillans
With the right people, a happy place is only relative.
Ahead, Behind
United States
Directed by Ben V Kadie
Choreographed/Performed by Jordan Johnson & Aidan Carberry
A surreal dance short. Two strangers find themselves waiting in an infinite queue.
Dance duo JA Collective and director Ben Kadie collaborate to create a trippy piece that uses impossible 3D space in a unique way, and explores the tension between of intimacy and isolation.
Heart of the Earth
United States
Directed & Choreographed by Lindsay Gilmour
This screendance explores the echo of geologic time in the human body and the interconnected and reciprocal relationship between body and earth. The camera and dancer are in dialogue with the environment. The sand, rocks, and sagebrush cease to be inert objects of perception with the dancer at the center, but rather animate entities with which the dancer and camera are in conversation. The film begins with the body filling the frame as earth and ends with the human form dissolving into the vast desertscape.
STAVROPOL
United Kingdom
Directed by Andrew Margetson
Choreographed by Irina Kononova
STAVROPOL is a short dance film. It is a collaboration between Russian choreographer Irina Kononova (multiple international freestyle battle winner) and British filmmaker Andrew Margetson (Lil Buck with icons of Modern Art, Reborn, Nela)
STAVROPOL uses the ‘battle’ format - familiar to hip-hop, freestylers and breakers where two teams compete against each other on the dancefloor – as a template on top of which a tightly choreographed contemporary performance is choreographed. Two teams of female dancers, marked by their neon-coloured wardrobe – dance against each other in thrilling synchronicity culminating in a moment where the two lead dancers go (literally) head to head. And then, in a surprising twist, the leaders switch teams. In an extraordinary moment of ‘fluidity’ merging with ‘spikiness’ the teams come together for a final thrillingly expansive passage.
The idea for STAVROPOL was conceived and developed during lock-down. In the Autumn of 2021, Andrew travelled to Stavropol in southern Russia to rehearse and film the project with Irina and five other dancers drawn from all over Russia. The film was shot in a derelict factory on the outskirts of Stavropol. The editing and post- production then took place in London.
to be near you.
United States
Directed by Ali Kenner Brodsky & Jarret Blinkhorn
Choreographed by Ali Kenner Brodsky
to be near you. pushes at the boundaries of time to create a feeling of reconnecting with something, or someone, who is gone.
Based on a live duet between Ali Kenner Brodsky and Jenna Pollack, to be near you. honors the memory of those that we have lost, collapses distance by energizing the spaces between, and demonstrates how people can find connection through physical separation.
木ノ内 周 (Shu)
United States
Directed by Mike Schwartz
Choreographed by Shu Kinouchi
An experimental dance film in three chapters - featuring Shu Kinouchi. Documenting the journey of a dancer whom is questioning whether or not they are truly an artist.
Los Angeles Dance Film Festival 2022
Festival Founder/Executive Director Nicole Manoochehri
Festival Director: Olivia Mia Orozco
Board Members: Alyssa Thompson, Olivia Mia Orozco, Nadav Heyman & Steven Butler
Curatorial Team: Nadav Heyman, Olivia Mia Orozco, Nicole Manoochehri
2022 Guest Judges: Steven Butler, Kailee McMurran & Fu Le
Special Award: Presented by StandardVision
House Manager: Hossein Mardani
Tech: Joubin Manoochehri
Event Photographer: Mo Summers
Performative Pop-Ups Performance: Bee Appleseed
Trailer: Edit by Olivia Mia Orozco with Music by @acadjmia
Special thank you to Yasha & Max of Paper & Plastik Cafe/Mimoda Studios.
Mission: Gathering creators and lovers of screendance in one place to celebrate dance film and inspire each other.
Los Angeles Dance Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, all donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donations will be used to continue the Los Angeles Dance Film Festival’s goal of “To provide more opportunities for filmmakers and dancers by organizing more screenings, commissioned works, dance film workshops, classes, and talks for the community.” Tax ID 87-3991400