PICKS 2
IN-PERSON October 16th @ 7:30PM | ONLINE October 17th - 24th | Run Time: 71minsEnjoy this curation of 10 films from several Oregon artists, Portugal, the United States, Belarus, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and the Philippines. These films take us on a journey through themes of drunken loneliness, deforestation, how we feel nostalgia in our bodies, human rights, inter-racial conversations, and some films that remind us to smile.
Picks 2 will be screened in person on October 16th at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland at 7:30pm or a can be watched online from October 17th-24th.
Helen
Oregon Artist
Director: Robert Uehlin
Director of Photography: Robert Uehlin
Choreographer: Berit Ahlgren
Dancers: Berit Ahlgren, Anna Leopold
Composer: Kyle Preston
Helen is a short screendance featuring choreographer and dancer Berit Ahlgren and the debut performance of dancer Anna Leopold. The film was made as a part of the 2019 DanceBARN Festival in Battle Lake, Minnesota. Shot in an historic, lake-side cabin, the film investigates the inscrutable inner life of the previous generation. What was life like in role-bound isolation? How did you navigate your own mind? Did you also look to the past and wonder?
@robertuehlin
Successors
Oregon Artist
Director, Director of Photography, & Choreographer: Kailee McMurran
Dancers: Ashleigh Bolling, Emma Bucher, Anna Rose Deardorff. Jesse Johnson, Daria Keidar, Jenaya Stevenson, Elizabeth Sutton, & Alia Takashima
Composers: Fanny Mendelssohn
Producers: Western Oregon University
A tragedy of power lust.
Successors was created for Western Oregon University as the dance departments annual Spring Dance Concert went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Desabitar
Portugal
Directors: Diana Antunes
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Choreographer: Ana Moreno
Dancer: Ana Moreno
Composer: Noiserv
In unlocking doors to our past, memories transport us through time. “Desabitar” invites us to follow our memories to their effect upon us. Is it possible to be truly free when part of ourselves still lives trapped in the Past?
Empty Vessel
United States
Directors: Madison Elliott and Taylor Yocum
Director of Photography: Taylor Yocum
Choreographer: Madison Elliott
Dancer: Madison Elliott
Composer: Hobo Johnson
Location hosted by Full Circle Book Co-Op
“I used to believe that in order to be considered an artist you must be alone and crazy. Now I fear that I am both of those things but still not an artist.”
Taylor Yocum is a Sioux Falls, South Dakota based filmmaker, musician and artist aiming to create energetic, creative, thoughtful and engaging works.
Under Review: Katahdin
United States
Director: Kelly Ashton Todd
Director of Photography: Tyler Sparks
Choreographers: Paul Zivkovich, Tori Sparks, Ryan VanCompernolle, Tyler Phillips, Austin Tyson, and Kelly Ashton Todd
Dancers: Paul Zivkovich, Tori Sparks, Ryan VanCompernolle, Tyler Phillips, Austin Tyson
Sound Design: Marc Cardarelli
Editors: Natalie Deryn Johnson and Kelly Ashton Todd.
Producers: Ernest Revia and Kelly Ashton Todd.
A boy grows up spending his days amongst the trees. Through his daily visits of climbing, playing and swinging from branches, he develops a loving friendship with the tree and her saplings. But, the boy grows up.
His visits become few and far between and he loses his affection for the natural world. He follows his lineage into the field of logging; therefore he must choose between protecting or slaughtering his beloved family of trees. Under Review: Katahdin tells the heart-wrenching story of our evolving relationship with trees.
Winner of New Vision award from International Wildlife Film Festival. Accepted into Crested Butte Film Festival. Winner of Best Environmental Awareness from Accolade Film Festival.
@kellyashtontodd and @underreviewseries
The Conversation
United Kingdom
Director: Lanre Malaolu
Director of Photography: Anna Macdonald
Choreographer: Lanre Malaolu
Dancers: Onyemachi Ejimofor, Lauren Anthony, Faye Stoeser, Hannah Woodliffe, Nevena Stojkov, Lauren Stewart, Beth Stoddart
Composer: Jan Brzeziński
Steadicam Operator: Grant Sandy-Phillips
Through a dynamic fusion of movement and dialogue, The Conversation explores the challenges Black men and women face when communicating their racial experience to white partners.
Awards: Best Screendance – San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Best Dance Film – Aesthetica Film Festival
@alpj___ & @lanremalaolu
#FreeBelarus
Belarus/United States
Director: Olga Rabetskaya
Director of Photography: Carlos Cardona
Choreographer: Olga Rabetskaya
Dancers: Olga Rabetskaya, Anna Gichan
Composer: Ran Bagno
Dedicated to all Belarusians and those who are fighting for their rights. We are together.
Unprecedented violence has erupted around Belarus following its deliberately falsified presidential elections in August 2020. The peaceful protests which have ensued are severely suppressed by the riot police. At least 3 people have died, over 200 people have been injured and more than 7,000 people have been detained, including oppositional candidates, some who have fled, journalists, reporters, and women. Hundreds of thousands of people across the country are continuing to participate in these peaceful protests, the largest ever recorded in Belarus’s history.
#FreeBelarus is a film created in direct response to these events, in solidarity with the protestors. In creating this film there was a lot of intentionality with the use of colors and props to reflect the struggles, strength and pride of the Belarusian people.
Erêkauã
Brazil
Directors: Paulo Accioly
Director of Photography: Paulo Accioly
Choreography: Ernane Ferreira
Dancer: Kauã
Composer: Igor Peixoto
Producer : Pedro Krull
Best Animation – Mostra Fev/21 – Festival do Minuto, Best Videodance – Mostra experimental – Festival Híbrido, Official Selection – Dérapage20+1, Official Selection – Birmingham International Dance Festival, Official Selection – Screen Dance International, Official Selection – Videoartes – 5º Festival ECRÃ, Official Selection – Choreoscope 2021, Official Selection – Reeling: Dance on Screen Festival
Kauã dances in the hill, like a bird of prey.
Duel
PHILIPPINES
Director: Alfonso Sales
Director of Photography: Alfonso Sales
Choreographers: Kali Twins (Juan Diego Villarosa and Juan Gabriel Villarosa)
Dancers: Kali Twins (Juan Diego Villarosa and Juan Gabriel Villarosa)
Production Assistant: Karla Urquiaga
At the heart of the desert, a bounty hunter finally finds an infamous raider and attempts to take him down to claim the bounty. Both cowboys duel it out to prove who the baddest cowboy is in the wild, wild west.
Forgotten Song
UNITED STATES
Directors: Tobin Del Cuore + Tyler Gilstrap
Directors of Photography: Alex Birnie + Kyle Fasanella
Choreographer: Tyler Gilstrap
Dancer: Samuel Lee Roberts
Composer: Silvio Rodriguez + Curtis Macdonald, Featuring “Unicornio”
Music: Written, composed + performed by Silvio Rodriguez
Publisher: Ojalá S.L., Madrid © 2004
Sound design: Curtis Macdonald + Tobin Del Cuore
Color: Andrew Francis, Mirrors designed by Annalisa Iadicicco + Michael Francis McBride
Set + Lighting design: Tobin Del Cuore
Costumes: Quinn Czejkowski
A wandering man seeks to reconcile with himself and his past.