12., 13. October 2022
Kino Film Europe
Pistoriho palác
The curated programme for the Bratislava in Movement festival has been prepared by the Prague Dance Film Festival (FTF) and will present a selection of top dance films in two screenings.
The first evening will feature short, so-called dance for camera films that have won awards at international festivals. This collection will showcase cutting-edge works with strong content and visual statements and a wide thematic focus – from poetic poetry, romantic humour to probes into family trauma. These are poetic films in which dance and choreography play a key role.
On the second night, FTF will present a feature-length documentary by American director Ally Kovgan dedicated to one of choreography’s greatest visionaries, Merce Cunningham. The film, an international co-production, chronicles three decades in which Cunningham, misunderstood and dismissed by the dance world, developed a new dance technique and offered a new way of thinking about dance against all odds. The film documents his work and features unique – and previously unpublished – period footage. It charts the evolution of Merce Cunningham’s technique and aesthetic from the 1940s to the 1970s, as well as his collaborations with musical innovator John Cage and visual artist Robert Rauschenberg.
Since 2009, the Dance Film Festival has profiled itself as a biennial festival with the aim of presenting works of dance cinema, documentaries about dance, innovative recordings of dance productions and, above all, works of the dance for camera genre. The Dance Film Festival presents, produces and promotes dance films. In 2021, it launched the FTF EDU educational platform on its website.
With collaboration:
12. October 2022/7:00 pm
Ekman’s Concise Guide to Natural Movement (USA)
Directed by: T. M. Rives
Choreography: Alexander Ekman
Premiere 2018
San Francisco Dance Film Festival commissioned the renowned choreographer Alexander Ekman (A Swan Lake with the Norwegian National Ballet, Midsummer Nights Dream with the Royal Swedish Ballet and Playwith the Paris Opera Ballet) to collaborate with his favorite filmmaker T.M. Rives and create a short dance film for the San Francisco Dance Film Festival’s ninth annual festival.
Able
Directed by: Jacob Jonas
Choreography: ILL-Abillies
Premiere 2018
American choreographer Jacob Jonas collaborates in this film with ILL-Abilities – a dance group representing the differently-abled community, basing the performance on the group’s mantra: “No excuses, no limits.”
“ILL-Abilities represent the world’s best differently-abled breakdancers,” explains Jonas, an award-winning dance-maker. “I was inspired by these artists with real stories who have overcome an obstacle of their own, inspiring others.”
Sisters (NL)
Directed by: Daphne Lucker
Choreography: Emma Evelein
Premiere 2018
Sisters tells the tale of three sisters growing up in a dysfunctional family. A family without a mother. Sarah, Vera and Julia are at each other´s mercy and survive as long as they are together. With their movements and imagination, they make their world bigger, beautiful and bearable. They play, tickle each other and sometimes exclude one another, but one thing is certain; their connection is stronger than diamond. But are the connection and the magic of their movements strong enough to overcome the reality of their existence?
Delimitation (CZ)
Directed by: Tereza Vejvodová
Choreography: Markéta Jandová
Premiere 2020
Our personality responds to external circumstances with delineation. Physical dialogue with emptiness opens up the subject of the personal identity of a space of anonymous urban landscape. Fingertips are a tool of touch, but also of identification. Physical dialogue with the void, exploration leading to the discovery of space and self-projecting life into the seemingly lifeless and meaningless. The film looks at the possibilities of finding a personal identity in an anonymous urban landscape.
Fibonacci (CZ)
Directed by: Tomáš Hubáček
Choreography: Marie Gourdain
Premiere 2020
Environmental dance film, or audio-visual meditation on Fibonacci patterns seen in the landscape, but also in the behaviour of the herd, steeped in the structure of film and layers of music.
Timecode (ES)
Directed by: Juanjo Gímenez
Choreography: Lali Ayguadé
Premiere 2016
Luna and Diego are parking lot attendants. Diego works nights, Luna works days. The director of Timecodewas working as a computer programmer at the time of filming, the screenwriter was a high school music teacher and the editor was selling at Mc Donald’s. Timecode is one of the most acclaimed dance films of the last decade, taking home the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
Am I Paris (FR)
Directed by: Redha Medjellekh
choreography: Brice Larrieu aka Skorpion Dancer
A film about acceptance and reflection. This surprising and enchanting video features the French dancer Scorpion in a costume made by the hair expert Charlie Le Mindu. As a “hair creature”, Scorpion roams the streets of Paris while amusing, intriguing and sometimes even scaring passers-by. Director, Redha Medjellekh’s aims to highlight the need to accept differences in a cosmopolitan city like the French capital, putting dance at the centre of this process as a means of communication. The combination of elements, including Le Mindu’s astounding costume, Medjellekh’s staging, the ensemble of street characters and the intensity of the classical music score by Prokofiev gives the film an intense and poetic power that marks the minds.
13. October 2022/7:00 pm
Cunningham
Directed by: Alla Kovgan
The Dance Film Festival Prague brings the award-winning documentary Cunningham, by American director Alla Kovgan, which was created in an international co-production. The feature documentary portrays one of the great choreographic visionaries – Merce Cunningham, captures three decades in which Merce, misunderstood and rejected by the dance world, despite all assumptions developed a new dance technique and offered a new way of dance thinking. The film documents his work and brings unique — heretofore unpublished — period footage. It maps the evolution of Merce Cunningham’s technique and aesthetic from the 1940s to the 1970s, as well as his collaboration with music innovator John Cage and artist Robert Rauschenberg. Cunningham is one of the most acclaimed dance films of the last decade, taking home the Palme d´Or at Cannes.