FilmFest by Rogue Dancer: What’s Up DOC?
(June 2022)
We have been planning this theme since the beginning…
Quoting the infamous words of Bugs Bunny “What’s up Doc?”. We are moving through real stories with real people and most importantly real dancers. Join FilmFest by Rogue Dancer in celebrating the Dance Documentary.
Special PATREON ONLY SCREENING of You bet I dance! - Und ob ich tanze! Film by Lars Pape (c) 2019 GERMANY. Now - July 3, 2022 https://www.patreon.com/roguedancer
Now - July 3rd, 2022
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." - Vivian Greene
☯☯☯
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." - Vivian Greene ☯☯☯
“We think the only way to change the worlds is through ART & we appreciate our audiences more than you know. Thank you for experiencing the DANCE with us, please enjoy this month’s event!
Click on the picture below to access this month’s SHOWCASE. ”
— Jennifer Scully-Thurston, Rogue Dancer Creator & Curator
Your Playbill
Sound and Sole
film by Cara Hagan(c) 2018 USA
Arthur Grimes was born and raised in the Appalachian mountains. He is the only professionally working, African-American buck dancer in Boone, North Carolina. In this short documentary, Arthur recounts his dance journey from eager youth to professional master, gives us a glimpse into his performance experience, and demonstrates his deep love for Appalachian music, dance and history. Cara Hagan - Director, Writer & Producer Arthur Grimes - Key Cast Trajan Wellington - Key Cast & Music Old Crow Medicine Show - Key Cast Robert Gelber - Cinematographer & Editor Tom Hansell - Cinematographer Molly Clay - Cinematographer Susanna Kournegay - Cinematographer Old Crow Medicine Show - Music
4'33'' Times Three. Homage to an Artist and a Chair
film by Daphne Mero (c) 2018 ISRAEL
Holding a Thonet chair in his hands and with meticulous and calculating steps, Professor Amos Hetz enters the space of the Polonsky Academy of Advanced Studies. At the age of 83, he re-dances his movement composition “4.33”, created as an homage to the Avant-garde musical piece by John Cage.
Hetz is one of Noa Eshkol’s most prominent students, who co-created the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation. Like her, he is a revolutionary innovator who found himself on the margins of the Israeli Dance Scene.
In the film, a poetic Doco-Dance that weaves together excerpts from Hetz’s dance and artistic declarations, we are treated to new perspectives on Dance, Art and the meanings we take for granted of Chairs and Sitting in them.
Daphna Mero - Director, Producer
Yael Mero - Producer
Daniel Bar - Cinematography
Lior Pinsky - Original Music and Sound Design
UMOJA
film by Michael Maurissens (c) 2020 UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
‘Umoja’ explores the relation between traditional and contemporary dance in the Eastern African context. Shot in the frame of the 2019 Haba na Haba Festival, it presents the role and the practice of dance in the Tanzanian society. Michael Maurissens - Director CARRÉ BLANC PRODUCTIONS - Producer Isack Peter Abeneko - Key Cast
How She Moves
Film by Anya Raza & Aisha Linnea Akhtar (c) 2020 PAKISTAN
How She Moves follows the spirited Indu Mitha, a 90-year-old dance teacher, as she prepares for her final dance performance. A minority in both religion and profession, Indu has been teaching the classical Bharatanatyam dance form in Pakistan for sixty years. Though traditionally associated with stories of Hindu deities, under her creative direction, the form has been given a secular and feminist flavor in Pakistan. As two women filmmakers, we were allowed rare access into an otherwise unseen world of women and dance in Pakistan. Through an exploration of the colorful artistry of Indu and her students, we glean insight into culture, identity, and freedom of expression in a country where extremism, nationalism, and suspicion of dance as a legitimate art form push the classical dance towards extinction. We now unfortunately live in a time when Muslim and minority women’s views, lives, and bodies are a battleground in the so-called clash of civilizations. In a time when vitriol dominates and divides communities all over the world, How She Moves challenges these narratives by telling a universal story of hope and resilience. Anya Raza - Director & Producer Aisha Linnea Akhtar - Director
MEN in charge
Film by Melanie Kloetzel & Linnea Swan (c) 2021 CANADA
Tracking the antics of the performance group kloetzel&co., ‘MEN in charge’ documents the development of the satirical dance theatre work 'It began with watching'. Through a physical and artistic representation of a sector enthralled by alternative facts, ‘MEN in charge’ provokes audiences to reconsider the cunning, and sometimes comical, intersection of art and politics. Melanie Kloetzel - Director, Choreography & Writer Linnea Swan - Director & Cinematography kloetzel&co. - Producer ReLoCate - Producer Dancers - Jocelyn Hoover Leiver "Dick", Meghann Michalsky "Stan", Jennifer dewolf "Jack", Janelle Schiffner "Jean", Brenna Goertson "Brad/Brenda", Taylor Ritchie "Roy", Sylvie Moquin "Phil", Melanie Kloetzel "Todd"
INTRAMUR
film by Pepe Andrea & Rafa Moles (c) 2022 SPAIN
A wall that divides the world of the living and the world of the dead. A wall, however, permeable, full of cracks. A wall dividing the stage… 'Intramur' is the dance just before the dance. It shows the process of creating the show 'La mort i la donzella' by Asun Noales and based on the work of Franz Schubert. The Spanish choreographer opens her mind and her heart to let us see the place where the first ideas are born, how they grow until they become movement, form, light and darkness. 'La mort i la donzella' ended up receiving three Max Awards, the most important for the performing arts in Spain. But the film 'Intramur' tells a story that happened much earlier, just before the curtain opened for the first time, when a premature death confronts us with looking inside that wall that nobody wants to cross. Pepe Andreu - Director, Writer & Producer Rafa Molés - Director, Writer & Producer José Luis González Iglesias - DOP
Reuven Does the Neighborhood, one last time
film by Richard Daniels (c) USA
This is a short documentary about Reuven's last journey around his first neighborhood before moving away to a new one. Places he used to love, things he used to do, where he would eat and play, memories and curiosities about his origins explored together with his parents, blend together to shape up Reuven's universe, defining the first six years of his childhood. Richard Daniels - Director & Producer Cast - Reuven Fishman, Angela Jeffers & Levi Fishman
Conquest and Prison
film by Mark Freeman SOUTH AFRICA
Conquest and Prison is a two-part suite combing text, spoken word and site-specific dance set in Grahamstown, South Africa. Part I –– Oscar’s Journey –– is a solo performance by Oscar Buthelezi, the first African choreographer to win the prestigious Kurt Jooss Prize (Road 2016). This personal work combines personal poetic reflection and a performance at British built Ft. Selwyn. Part II –– Child’s Play–– features Lorin Sookool and Julia Wilson at the Old Gaol, which imprisoned 1000’s of black South Africans. This virtual duet in words and images attempts to reclaim and re-imagine this site of suffering. markfreemanfilms.org Mark Freeman - Director & Producer Choreographer/Performers Part I: Oscar Buthelez Choreographer/Performers Part II: Lorin Sookool and Julia Wilson Smangaliso Ngwenya - Cinematographer Part I Music Composition: Andrew Mario Smith Music Compilation: Teboho Gilhert Letele Part II Music: Matt Vend
From Me
film by Magpie Dance (c) 2021 UK
If you had to write a letter to your body, what would you say? Seven dance students, all of whom have learning/intellectual disabilities, collaborate to produce their first film. Each of the dancers were asked to write to their body, exploring how they perceived themselves, others and the world around them during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing upon their feelings and experiences, they choreographed sequences to portray their stories. (Please note, this film contains spoken English and has closed captions/subtitles in Belarusian, Bulgarian, Cantonese (Hong Kong), Dutch, Estonian, French, Greek, Indonesian, Javanese, Kazakh, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Sundanese and Swedish.
Dance with Me
film by Gabriel Diamond (c) 2020 USA
Imagine putting on a blindfold on a busy street corner and inviting strangers to dance with you. That's what Gabriel Diamond did in Berkeley in 2018. Two years later he finally got the courage to revisit the footage and create this touching short documentary about the potential of strangers to meet in unique ways using the power of dance and trust. Gabriel Diamond - Director & Dancer Candice Holdorf - Producer Mar al'Dao - Cinematographer
You bet I dance! - Und ob ich tanze!
film by Lars Pape (c) 2019 GERMANY
In 2019, a dance workshop for children with cerebral palsy takes place for the first time in Germany, more precisely at the Staatsballett Berlin. Leonie and Hannah, two girls with very different manifestations of this early childhood brain injury, embark on their first big dance adventure together with eight other children. But what is possible for children with physical and sometimes also cognitive restrictions? And then at one of the best dance theaters in the world - the Staatsballett Berlin? The children give an impressive answer. They dance. In their own special way. Dancing means being happy. And that happiness makes the documentary "You bet I dance!" through the irrepressible zest for life of the children and the noticeable love of the parents formally tangible. Lars Pape - Director, Writer, Producer &Edit Loretta Stern - Writer & Producer Holger Schürmann - Writer & Producer Alex Wendler - Edit WellCooked Audio I Jonas Gewald & Dejan Dukovski - Score Dancers - Iana Salenko & Maria Boumpouli