DFA Announces Free, Outdoor Screening in NYC with ADF’s Movies by Movers & BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

ANNOUNCING AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL’S MOVIES BY MOVERS IN NYC CO-PRESENTED BY DANCE FILMS ASSOCIATION & BAAD! BRONX ACADEMY OF ARTS AND DANCE Free, Outdoor Screening of Dance Films at BAAD! on July 22, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Press Contact:
Rebecca Hadley
Dance Films Association
rebecca@dancefilms.org

July 10, 2017, New York, NY — Dance Films Association, Inc. (DFA) announces American Dance Festival’s (ADF) Movies by Movers in New York City, co-presented with BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. This free, outdoor screening on Saturday, July 22, 2017 will feature eight short dance films selected by Cara Hagan, director and curator of ADF’s Movies by Movers.

“It is exciting to present these films in association with two organizations that are as passionate about innovative work as DFA and BAAD!” says Hagan. “The films included in this offering are diverse in their conceptual and cinematic approaches and touch on everything from feminism to our relationship to technology. We’re proud to present this free screening to the public in an outdoor space, where the films can be appreciated differently than they might be in a theatre, with the landscape and atmosphere to add to the experience.”

This screening marks DFA’s second collaboration with BAAD! to bring dance films to the public, and its first partnership with ADF’s Movies by Movers in New York. The event will take place in the yard on the campus of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church right beside BAAD! (2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461), just a three minute walk from the 6 train in the Bronx. The screening will begin at sundown, and will move indoors if there is inclement weather. Click here for directions.

Read below for information about the films and co-presenters, and reserve free tickets here.

Twitter: @DanceFilms, @BAADBronx, @AmerDanceFest
Instagram: @DanceFilms, @BAADBronx, @AmerDanceFest
Facebook: Dance Films Association, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, American Dance Festival
LINEUP
BLACK BOX (Shamel Pitts) is an enigmatic performance/installation featuring Shamel Pitts, a former member of Batsheva Dance Company. Buoyed by his trademark expressive movement, Pitts employs spoken word, evocative lighting, and video to construct a personal, poetic narrative about search for identity and the struggle for survival amidst impermanence.

Body Language Zone (Kim Saarinen) is a humorous dance film about how body language is affected by a controlling office environment.

CEILING (Katherine Helen Fisher) focuses on a dancer’s repetitive leap as a physical allegory for striving. Shot in the Angeles Forest on the Phantom Camera, the film weaves gender and landscape into the body’s potential for movement in the tradition of Eadweard Muybridge.

Dolphin Dreams (Chisa Hidaka and Benjamin Harley) follows two New York City dancers who dive into an unprecedented interspecies collaboration, creating underwater dances with a charismatic pod of wild Atlantic Spotted dolphins in the open ocean. Weaving together elements of dance film, natural history documentary, and behind-the-scenes storytelling, Dolphin Dreams reveals the desire for mutual understanding and trust in the hearts of human and dolphin alike.

F I E L D T R I P (Kira Blazek) follows a group of dancing figures who become curious about the world above them. Inspired by the ideals behind the Standing Rock protest and “Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis, this film dreamily twists the importance of individualism, self-expression, and our connection to the natural world.

Intrinsic Moral Evil (Harm Weistra) is a tale of identity and coming of age that invites the audience to reflect and form its own interpretation, as the three dancers play with viewers’ expectations and perceptions.

Lone Signal (Bat-Sheva Guez) is a short film in which nostalgia nuzzles the futuristic, as a dancer reaches out to connect with loved ones left behind. In a paper moon universe, our dancer attempts to send a message back home through an unusual and mystifying method of communication.

Woman Versus (Justina Grayman) is a dance film about a woman’s awakening to the systems that she is forced to participate in, and her choice to stay within those machines and accept their dominance, or to challenge their power.
CURATOR
Cara Hagan Director and curator Cara Hagan is a professional artist of many genres. She has had the pleasure of presenting her work on stage, on screen, and in educational settings across the US and abroad. Most recently, Hagan’s creative work has been seen on stage at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, in installation at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, on screen at the Thurrock International Film Festival, Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, and the San Francisco Doc Fest, and in several forms at Appalachian State University, where she serves as Assistant Professor of Dance Studies in the Department of Theatre and Dance. Ms. Hagan is a 2014-2015 recipient of the NCAC Choreographic Fellowship Award. She is also the recipient of a 2015 Sustainability in the Arts Grant and a 2015-2016 University Research Council Award, both from Appalachian State University. Hagan’s recent scholarly and creative contributions can be found in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing, the Headwaters Journal of Expressive Arts, The International Journal of Screendance, and in the anthology, Dance’s Duet with the Camera: Motion Pictures.
ORGANIZATIONS
American Dance Festival’s Movies by Movers ADF’s Movies By Movers is a bi-annual festival dedicated to the celebration of the conversation between the body and the camera, formed in 2016 when ADF’s International Screendance Festival and Movies by Movers merged and launched ADF’s 21st year of celebrating screen dance. BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance Crowned “a funky and welcoming performance space” by The New York Times, BAAD! is a performance and workshop space that presents cutting-edge works in dance and all creative disciplines empowering to women, Latinos and people of color and the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community. BAAD! is home to Arthur Avilés Typical Theatre (AATT) and the Bronx Dance Coalition which produces The Bronx Dance Magazine and was founded by Arthur Avilés and Charles Rice-González in 1998 in Hunts Point. BAAD! moved to Westchester Square in October 2013 to a gothic revivalist building on the grounds of St. Peter’s Church. Dance Films Association Dance Films Association, Inc. (DFA) is dedicated to furthering the art of dance film. Connecting artists and organizations, fostering new works for new audiences, and sharing essential resources, DFA seeks to be a catalyst for innovation in and preservation of dance on camera. Currently, DFA is actively seeking to broaden its audience via new media initiatives and membership drives, to support cutting edge approaches to dance documentation, and to expand partnerships with schools, arts partners, media sites, and other institutions. Alongside the Dance on Camera Festival, DFA conducts year round programming such as the Dance Film Lab, Dance Films Presents, and Capturing Motion NYC and additionally acts as a Fiscal Sponsor and offers a Production Grant.

Dance Films Association receives generous year-round support from our members, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, The Office of the Mayor Bill De Blasio, and Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl, as well as The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Jody and John Arnhold, Emerging Movement Council, AbelCine, Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Dance and New Media Foundation, Brown-Forman, Funders For LGBTQ Issues, Gibney Dance Center, and Materials for the Arts. For more information visit www.dancefilms.org and follow @dancefilms on Twitter.

For inquiries, please contact:
Rebecca Hadley
Communications Associate
Dance Films Association
(374) 505-8649
rebecca@dancefilms.org
www.dancefilms.org
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