Dances For Camera - Dance Film Festival

Please join us for “Dances for Camera” on Saturday, April 23rd from 3-5 pm and/or Wednesday, April 27th from 6-8 pm. Two distinct programs at the San Francisco Public Library will showcase highlights from the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, with some of the best dance films from around the globe, selected out of more than 100 entries from 25 countries.

These short experimental dance pieces are created specifically for the camera, independent from the traditional stage. Interpretations can range from narratives to collages of music, movement and images, sometimes including the use of animation and other new media. Local directors will be available for Q&A following the screenings.

Saturday, April 23rd
Screendance shorts program, 3pm
The Watch (USA, 2010) 3 min Director: Shal Ngo & Ryan McNamara
- A playful collaboration between a filmmaker, a fashion designer and young freelance dancers in New York.

Drift (USA, 2010) 8 min
Director/Choreographer: Eric Garcia & Kat Cole
- With no destination in mind, a pair of vagabonds hitchhike, stumble, and inch their way through striking landscapes.

Study for an Underwater Film (Sweden, 2010) 3 min
Director/Choreographer: Pontus Lidberg
- An early study for a potential new film by the award-winning Swedish choreographer/filmmaker, filmed in Sweden and at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin.

There is a Place (UK/China, 2010) 7 min
Director: Katrina McPherson Choreographer: Sang Jijia
- Soloist Sang Jijia, an ethnic Tibetan born in Gansu, struggles with his position in the world.

Cea (Canada, 2006) 4 min
Director: Robert Prowse Choreographer: Andrea Pass
- The slow, melodic rhythms and quiet energy of this film offer a powerful dichotomy to the frenetic pace of today’s dominant urban culture. The movement flows with the grace of poetry to an original score that takes us back through our collective rural history.

The Perfect Vacuum (Canada, 2010) 6 min
Director: Alana Cymerman Choreographer: Benjamin Hatcher
- Mona left a glamorous life back home because of war. Now, she finds home in vacuum dancing.

The Wait of Gravity (Italy/USA, 2010) 5 min
Director: Renata Sheppard Choreographer: Renata Sheppard & Caitlin Marz
- A human form shifts in and out of a relationship with gravity in an elusive architectural space—a journey of sound, vision, and kinesthetics.

The Greater the Weight (Canada, 2008) 5 min
Director: Marlene Millar & Philip Szporer Choreographer: Dana Michel
- Dancer and choreographer Dana Michel assembles extremely physical movement—a remnant from her previous training in track and touch football—with mathematical precision and poetic improvisation: The result is an exploration of the body as an instrument in a symphony of rupture and flow.

Connect 4 (USA, 2006) 3 min
Director/Choreographer: Nadia Oussenko
- Four dancers work within four spaces of a warehouse to connect a single movement phrase.

Feature Presentation, 4pm

Finite & Infinite Games (USA, 2010) 45 min Director: RJ Muna Choreographer: Katherine Fisher
- The San Francisco premiere of local filmmaker RJ Muna’s Finite and Infinite Games, choreographed by former ODC dancer Kate Fisher and shot in New York City’s Judson Memorial Church. Includes documentary about the making of the film.

Wednesday, April 27th
Screendance shorts program, 6pm
Motel Deception (Australia, 2009) 5min
Director/Choreographer: Chrissie Parrot
- A seedy motel room, money and a gun set the scene for a very physical confrontation between the scheming Clare and Dexter.

After the Water the Clouds (Netherlands/Spain, 2009) 10 min
Director/Choreographer: Carmen Rozestraten
- Playful and poetic voyage of a young Catalan woman, whose world becomes surreal as she encounters mythical and unusual characters.

Light in Warped Time (USA, 2010) 7 min
Director: Jennifer Schwed Choreographer: Lucy Bowen McCauley
- A fantastical exploration of the desire to be free from social boundaries.

Texas Plates (USA, 2010) 3 min
Director/Choreographer: Marta Renzi
- A playful roadside romance set to music by country artist Patti Scialfa.

Kaleidoscope (USA, 2010) 7 min
Director: Kate Duhamel Choreographer: Jason Samuels Smith

Entre Nous (USA/UK 2010) 7 min
Director/Choreographer: Blair Brown
- An intimate look at the body in motion and an exploration of the emotions behind the ideas of separation, vulnerability, and loneliness.

January (USA, 2009) 4 min
Director: RJ Muna Choreographer: Rachael Lincoln
- A solo made within the real and imagined confines of winter. In a slate-walled room with chalk dust as snow, a woman follows her mind's small agitations as she meditates on the passage of time.

Stronger (UK, 2010) 4 min
Director/Choreographer: Wilkie Branson
- Two new-found companions embark on a journey adventuring up a wooded mountain.

Feature Presentation, 7pm
The Nightingale (USA/SF, 2011) 21 min
Director: Greta Schoenberg
- A short narrative in classic 1940s film noir style, shot entirely in San Francisco with an all-local cast and crew of dancers, musicians, and visual artists.

Q & A to follow

Both programs will be presented in the Main Library's Koret Auditorium. All library programs are free and open to the public.

Reading List:

Dance On Camera: A Guide To Dance Films And Videos, edited By Louise Spain (Scarecrow Press, 1998).

Modern Dance & Ballet On Film & Video: A Catalog, compiled And edited By Susan Braun (Dance Films Association, 1986).