Dance Films Association

Moving Pictures Festival suspends operations;
MADance begins
by Philip Szporer

Toronto’s Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video, a significant presence on the international circuit since 1992, has suspended operations, as we know it, says co-founder and former artistic director Kathleen Smith. But Moving Pictures, which was dedicated to the intersection of movement and the media arts, is not entirely dead, she states. Something new will appear in the future, with a new aesthetic approach, but “it’s premature for me to talk specifically about our plans,” she said in June. The festival certainly helped to push the boundaries of what the genre - for the screen, and beyond – could do.

For now, with no MoPix on the books, there will be no cross-country dancefilm tour, always an adjunct to the big festival in Toronto. According to Smith, who is currently producing films full-time for a company called Hellhound with director Alison Murray (currently they are in post-production with a documentary about itinerant carnival workers), a lot of the highlights tour stops that MoPix developed have managed to go on to independently present their own events, with filmmakers, choreographers and broadcasters continuing to send their work to various events. “Which thrills us no end,” she says. “We'll be helping others as necessary but there is not a coherent plan. People seem to be more capable and willing to curate their own events and we share our curatorial resources with them if they do need some help.”

When Smith and co-founder Marc Glassman first created Moving Pictures back in the early '90s, it was a vibrant time in the arts. “Barriers were breaking down between artistic disciplines and the time seemed right to create an event that would bring together dancers and choreographers with directors and cinematographers. Our desire was to create a meeting ground where artists, producers and critics could meet to be inspired and make new work,” Glassman recalls. “(It was time) when it was possible to imagine features by Peter Greenaway or Guy Maddin incorporating dance into narratives that would win awards at prestigious festivals, and one-hours by David Hinton and Bernar Hébert could be hits with broadcasters world-wide.”

But, over the years, public and national broadcasters, from Canada to Europe to Australia, grew increasingly reluctant to fund projects. Apart from Moving Pictures suspending operations, most recently Dance Screen at the Place in London and SK Stiftung Kultur: Videotanz in Cologne, Germany, shut down (although other festivals have popped in England, like Moves in Manchester). Glassman acknowledges there were exceptions, of course. “But for every Judy Gladstone (Canada's Bravo!FACTs) or Bob Lockyer (now retired from the BBC), there were too many examples of timid broadcasters and arts administrators who failed to fund dance and other art films.”

These current realities are a distressing reminder of the struggles this genre faces, says Toronto-based dancer-choreographer and filmmaker Jenn Goodwin. “It may be a time that broadcasters are moving away from promotion and support of dance on film, when really they should be stepping in to inquire, advance and invest in this area.” Moving Pictures not only showed dance film work from all over Canada and abroad but also helped develop filmmakers in this genre, promoted their connection to international festivals, producers, innovators, and promoted and allowed for growth of the artist and their work. Goodwin was one such beneficiary. “It's very rare in any field where you can find an organization that will do that so consistently and so generously,” she says.

Because of Moving Pictures, Goodwin says she was able to continue to make dancevideos, and further develop relationships with broadcasters such as Bravo!FACT, Channel 4 (UK) and create relationships with mentors such as David Hinton. “From these relationships came other commissions and thus other films and videos and thus the further development of me as a filmmaker,” she says. “It made me so much more aware of the medium, other artists working in the field and I was able to learn, enjoy work and create partnerships and collaborations through that knowledge and awareness.”

But the loss of one quality international showcase here in Canada hasn’t deterred Allen and Karen Kaeja, co-artistic directors of Kaeja d’Dance, from launching a new festival initiative this autumn. MADance (Movement and Dance) Screen Salon will premiere on October 26, 2007, at the Drake Hotel in downtown Toronto. They speak calmly and with assurance, on the telephone from their home, about the annual event that will consist of two juried screenings. The first will feature films created by artists from the Greater Toronto area and the second will spotlight a slate of Canadian-based dance film artists. The festival will exert a strong influence on the development of dance filmmakers and dance media audiences in the city, say the Kaejas.

Allen Kaeja is acclaimed for the eight dance films he co-directed with Mark Adam, including Zummel and Old Country, and more recently for his collaborative work with Wisconsin-based dance media artist Douglas Rosenberg. And the Kaejas’s track record in producing work is impressive: their award-winning dancefilms (in which Karen has been featured as a dancer) have toured the world, been screened in over 65 international and national festivals since 1997 (in 15 countries), as well as being scheduled on television networks internationally.

The idea of producing an annual festival idea flows from informal screenings the Kaejas held at a Queen Street bar in Toronto a couple of years ago. But perhaps more importantly, an ambitious idea like this stems from the duo’s mission in art and in life: “to unleash a vision… to be expressed through contemporary dance.”

The Kaejas see the idea of the MADance Screen Salon generating more creation in the field. “Everything we do is an organic move forward,” they say. The couple tells of first putting out calls for submissions from strictly Toronto-based dance filmmakers, because they wanted to “really support people in our city,” said Allen Kaeja, who is teaching a dance film course at Toronto’s Ryerson University in the fall term, “Deadlines are fascinating motivators. It gets (people) moving.” But few applicants responded to the first call for entries.

MADance’s roster will include completed short works of 12 minutes or less from established and emerging creators in the field of dance on screen from across Canada. Another stipulation is that films must include a Canadian-based choreographer, director or performer. (The line-up will be announced in August.) The Kaejas also anticipate that the festival will embrace discussions with a variety of facilitators, filmmakers, choreographers and film buffs after each screening. But they explain that they aren’t interested in boosting the festival to include international entries just yet. “One day at a time” is their philosophy. “There’s a 100 percent chance it would be yes (to increase the scope of the entries in the future)”, says a sly Allen Kaeja. “But it’s also a 100 percent chance I don’t know.”

Karen Kaeja notes, “Passion leads us.” And programs like this one have their own momentum, she indicates. The couple prefers to see this venture as “a little snowball” that can grow. She adds, “We don’t want to get scared (by the magnitude of a larger festival).” They needn’t worry. From all perspectives, Canada’s dancefilm landscape – where the collisions between choreography and the camera continue - seems to have just received a much-needed boost. And for dance filmmakers like Goodwin what matters is being given a voice, a venue and an opportunity where Moving Pictures left off. “I am not sure of the extent of their event and if they will mentor and help develop artists as MoPix did, but whatever the case, they saw and are filling the void… and they are just the ones to do it. Long live movies that move!”

For more information, visit the company website, www. kaeja.org.

Dance on Camera Ezine July-August, 2007

Dance on Camera Ezine
July-August, 2007