PICKS 1

IN-PERSON October 15th @ 7:30PM | ONLINE October 16th - 24th | Run Time: 71mins

Enjoy this curation of 10 films from several Oregon artists, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States. These films make and follow threads that guide us into deep personal and societal histories, an embodied evolution of consciousness, delightful absurdity, love stories, and plenty of whimsy. 

 

Picks 1 will be available to watch either in person on October 15th at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland at 7:30pm or online from October 16th-24th. 

 

Online TicketsTheater Tickets

Body is Home

Oregon Artist

Director: Heidi Duckler
Director of Photography: Nicolas Savignano
Choreographer: Heidi Duckler
Dancers: Kya Bliss, Dar Vejon Jones, Conrad Kaczor, Carla Mann, Javon Mngrezzo, Kiel Moton, Himerria Wortham
Composer: Sarah Bell Reid
Costume Designer: Snezana Petrovic


Body is Home is set in Lawrence Halprin’s Portland Open Space Sequence, the film celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Keller Fountain, formerly the Forecourt Fountain, and honors the 100th birthday of the living choreographer Anna Halprin.

The Keller Fountain opened in 1970, only days after protests just a few blocks away resulted in the hospitalizations of 34 people. The new park immediately became a celebration of the Portland community and the power of public space. As the COVID-19 global pandemic and protests for racial justice roil Portland today, Body Is Home honors the present moment in a setting that remains unique and powerful after 50 crucial years of Portland history. Lawrence Halprin said it best when he noted, “Please try to remember we’re all in this together.” His vision began with open spaces that would be for everyone.

Heidi Duckler is the Artistic Director and founder of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles, California and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Titled the “reigning queen of site-specific performance” by the LA Times, Duckler has created more than 300 dance pieces all over the world. Duckler earned a BS in Dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in Choreography from UCLA, and is currently a Board Member of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance Advancement Council. Awards include the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Engaging Dance Audiences award, and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award. Duckler was a recipient of the 2019 Oregon Dance Film Commission and her work received the award for Best Choreography For the Lens at Verve Dance Film Festival.

@heididuckler

DIVE

United Kingdom

Director: Oscar Sansom
Choreographer and Co-creator: Sophie Laplane
Co-creator: James Bonas 
Dancers: Scottish Ballet
Music: Schubert, Walter Wanderley, Lucy Allan

“I have written my name on the far side of the sky.” Yves Klein

Scottish Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence Sophie Laplane partners with James Bonas (The Crucible) and film director 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.

@scottishballet

SANKAKU

Japan / Oregon Artist

Directors: Mako Barmon, Jenelle Gaerlan, Skye Stouber
Director of Photography: Skye Stouber
Choreographer: Jenelle Gaerlan
Dancer: Jenelle Gaerlan
Composer: Mako Barmon

Lost and disoriented, San wakes in a dark void, unable to make sense of the changing landscapes that surround her. As she searches for the light, she soon realizes she is subject to the land that holds power over her being. Watch as San traverses through light, dark, and the in-between in a story underlined by a Taiko-inspired score.

@mybonkedlife

Dar/Land

United States

Directors: Andrea Knowlton & Philip Knowlton
Directors of Photography: Edward Martinez
Choreographer: Andrea Knowlton
Dancer: Darvensky Louis
Composer: J.C. Scheid


A singular young man struggles to imagine a perfect world in this 16mm experimental dance film that blurs the line between reality and dystopia.

@dance_aegis

экзальтация / exaltation

* contains nudity

Belgium

Director: Sam Asaert
Director of Photography: Sam Asaert
Choreographer: Christopher Hill
Dancers: Juliet Burnett
Composer: Andrey Dergachev


A dance film about the gradual awakening of spirit and soul. About the emergence of sentience. About being — gradually ripping away from a primitive state. Discovery through gradual grasping and exploration. The Self evolving into self-consciousness. Aware of a higher order — no longer bound by the instinctive programming of the environment. Exaltation.

Juliet Burnett danced with the Australian Ballet from 2003, before joining the Royal Ballet of Flanders in 2016 as a first soloist. She has a strong professional artistic relationship with the dance community in her second homeland of Indonesia.

Sam Asaert started making dance films in 2009 and has won numerous international awards for his poetic dance cinema at festivals such as San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Saint Petersburg International Film Festival in Russia, and LA Dance Film Fest. 

Choreographer Christopher Hill danced as a soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders from 2006 until 2014, when he joined the West Australian Ballet until transitioning into teaching and choreographing in 2018.

@samasaert_dancecinema

Bubblegum

Australia

Director: Ryan Renshaw
Director of Photography: Daniel Haneman
Choreographer: Jack Lister
Dancers: Pol Thio Andre
Composer: Miss Emma

Every bubble must eventually burst.

@ryanrenshaw

Memories of the Future

The Netherlands

Directors: Dance Collective Arnhemse Meisjes
Director of Photography: Floris Verweij
Choreographers: Dance Collective Arnhemse Meisjes
Starring: Henny de Wit & Mia Savi.
Dancers: Inbal Abir, Yeli Beurskens, Anna Fransen, Aïda Guirro Salinas & Kim Tuerlings.
Composer: Wout Kemkens
Music mixage: Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt at Galloway Recording Studio.
Editors: Floris Verweij & Anna Fransen.
Colorist: Luuk van Stegeren. Mixage: Sam Huisman.


‘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.

2nd prize of the jury – Bodyscope Film Festival, Russia

@danscollectiefarnhemsemeisjes

Nude Me/Under the Skin: A Resurrection of Black Women's Visibility

United Kingdom
Director: Freddie Leyden
Director of Photography: Brendan Harvey
Dancer/Choreographer: Enam Gbewonyo
Composer: mrwize__ via exportinggood
Colourist:  Marty McMullen

 

Presenting performance art film, ‘Nude Me/Under the Skin: A Resurrection of Black Women’s Visibility’ a collaboration between Textile and Performance artist Enam Gbewonyo and Director Freddie Leyden.

The film unfolds at Two Temple Place – an opulent neo-Gothic mansion in London (UK), commissioned by and built for American immigrant William Waldorf Astor, in the 1890s. As arguably, the richest man in the world, he spared no expense, so the building provides a vivid narrative of his life and the endeavour of the remarkable craftspeople who shaped it. Inspired by the architecture, Freddie and Enam created a film in conversation with those surroundings.

The film like Enam’s wider work explores the nuances of the Global North’s empirical history and its very direct effects on the Black British diaspora, in particular the women of this community. These themes are explored through the language of dance using ballet inspired movement and agbadza – a traditional Ewe (Ghana) dance of Enam’s heritage.

Brought forth to film is a conversation between the small frame of this black female body and an expansiveness of architecture – masonry and carpentry. The film also provides a moment of healing for a community emerging from a period of continuous emotional triggers and physical harm.

@enamgd  @freddie_leyden 

Toy Box

United States

Director: Nathan Hirschaut
Director of Photography: Alex Sargent
Choreographer: Nathan Hirschaut
Dancer: Zoe Hollinshead
Composer: Assaf Shatil
Singer: Lydia Graham


Zoe Hollinshead, the protagonist, finds herself at a portal into the whimsical world of her childhood imagination. After deciding to enter, Zoe playfully explores a myriad of worn down outdoor locations and sculptures that represent her childhood memories and fantasies.

@nathanhirschaut

 

 

Angelina

United States

Director: Holly Wilder
Director of Photography: Duncan Wilder
Choreographer: Holly Wilder
Dancers: Yoshie Fujimoto Kateada and Victoria Daylor
Composer: Lizzy McAlpine
Editor: Holly Wilder, Assistant Editor: Victoria Daylor


Filmed during our 2020 quarantined residency in Acadia National Park, Wilder Project brings you “Angelina”. Set to Lizzy McAlpine’s heartbreaking tune of the same name, “Angelina” is a queer love story that floats into your heart and lingers for a while after, reminding you so sweetly of a love that slipped away.

Wilder Project’s 18 dance films have screened at over 40 film festivals on 5 continents winning 8 awards.

@wilderprojectdance

 

 

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