SPARTACUS
Vadim Derbenev and Yuri Grivorovich, Russia, 1975; 94m
SPARTACUS, the recently restored 1975 ballet film based on Yuri Grigorovich’s staging for the Bolshoi Ballet, stars Vladimir Vasilyev, Natalya Bessmertnova, Maris Liepa as Crassus and Nina Timofeeva as Aegina, each dancer a renowned star of the famed Bolshoi Ballet at the time. This ballet-drama is a Soviet-Era vision of the much depicted uprising by Roman slaves, a grand cinematic spectacle set to ascore by Aram Khachaturian.
REVELRY (“Dancing Song”)
Zlatko Bourek, Croatia, 1966; 9m
Amusing animated short.
HORIZON OF EXILE
Isabel Rocamora, United Kingdom/Spain, 2007; 22m
A journey of two women across timeless desert landscapes is punctuated by spoken testimonies of Iraqi exiles. Set to a soundtrack by Jivan Gasparyan with the hypnotic voice of Surma Hamid, an Iraqi exile now living in London, the bodies betray a serene violence, travelling as though released from consciousness or gravity, falling and recuperating, haunted by an irrepressible past.
PINA BAUSCH
Anne Linsel, Germany, 2006; 44m
Before choreographer Pina Bausch and her Tanz-theater Wuppertal were known around the world, her new, unusual and original body language was ill-received. In the early days the audience (and most critics) were irritated and confused.Tumultuous scenes in the audience were not unusual. Pina Bausch speaks about the beginnings of the Tanztheater and the inescapable path she felt she had to follow. She talks about rehearsals, her pieces (more than 30 by now), her co-productionswith other cities and countries and being on tour. Some of her dancers, the set designer Peter Pabst and the costume designer Marion Cito, all of whom have been with Pina Bausch for decades, talk about working with her. Shot in Venice at the Teatro Fenice, in Lisbon and Brussels, and in Wuppertal with the support of WDR Cologne, and Arte France.
LIFEFORCE #3
Lene Boel, Denmark, 2007; 10.5m
A hooded man discovers an environment of tunnels and machinery. An invisible force gradually takes control of his body pulling him through industrial spaces deep into a cave. Funded in part by The Danish Arts Council.
FRAGMENTATION
Suzon Fuks, Australia, 2007; 5.8m
Two guys, James Cunningham and Rob Tannion, absorbed in their morning paper and their personal space, manage to find a disjointed connection with one another.
FLYING LESSON
Phil Harder, Rosanne Chamecki, Andrea Lerner, USA, 2007; 4’37m
(Winner of the 2008 Jury Prize)
A sweet sail one foot above Brooklyn, accomplished by Rosanne Chamecki and Andrea Lerner who are old friends from their native Brazil.
FANTASTIC FLOWER SHOP
Pawel Partyka, Denmark/Poland, 2001; 15m
Inspired by the story, puppets and design of Frances Osterflet, with animation by Krzysztof Brzozowski and Adam Wyrwas, this award-winning short should inspire fashion designers as well as story tellers. Set in a flower shop at closing time, wires spin out from their spools to become small characters who pluck petals to adorn themselves and dance the night away, primarily to a Latin beat.
LIFE FORCE #1
Lene Boel, Denmark, 2007; 14m
A proud inventor enjoys conducting and bringing to life the machines in his power station. He gets carried away by the music in a pair of headphones and the room becomes his partner in a passionate and humorous dance. At the end of the day he returns to his house in the sky.
HERE AFTER
Wim Vandekeybus, Belgium, 2007; 65m
(Nominated for the Jury Prize)
Through flashbacks, HERE AFTER tells the story of an isolated community in which a power-mad tyrant commands an infanticide. In the danced scenes wesee how the characters relive their memories in the here-after; as if their emotions and traumas were captured in the memory of their bodies. The film shows terror and its destroying effect on a community and questions existential themes such as life/death, culpability/penance, identity/memory, regret/negation and power/freedom.
FELIA DOUBROVKSA REMEMBERED
Virginia Brooks, USA, 2008; 37m
Born in 1896 in St. Petersburg, Russia, Felia Doubrovska spent 33 years first as a student at the Imperial Ballet School and then as a famous ballerina. After her retirement from the stage she devoted nearly the same span of time to teaching at the School of American Ballet. This film provides an affectionate memorial and a tribute to an artist who made a great contribution to preserving the ballet tradition, as she participated in the training of many of the women of the New York City Ballet, the instruments of George Balanchine’s choreographic genius.
SLEEPING BALLERINA
Ludovic Kennedy, United Kingdom, 1959; 29m
Made at Anton Dolin’s instigation by the BBC, SLEEPING BALLERINA looks atthe career of Olga Spessivtzeva (1895-1991), the Aurora of Diaghilev’s 1921 production of The Sleeping Princess. Spessivtzeva was considered to be one of the most promising dancers of her generation but her career was abruptly interrupted by the mental illness. As legend has it, she lost her memory on-stage performing the mad scene in Giselle. The film includes footage of a rehearsal of Giselle Act 1. In 1940 she was taken to the psychiatric hospital where she remained for 22 years.
HAPPY TO BE SO
Yelena Demikovsky, USA, 2007; 47m
An inspiring documentary about Oleg Briansky and Mireille Briane, former principal dancers, renowned ballet teachers, founders of the Briansky Saratoga Ballet School and a dynamic duet for more than 50 years. Briansky, of WhiteRussian descent, and Briane, a Parisian, met in Paris. He was hailed as “the most sought after male dancer of his time” by Ballet magazine. She was a principal dancer in France and “a born teacher.” The film depicts the Brianskys as performers and narrators of their own life story – highlighted by exciting footage from the ’50s and ’60s.
CHRISTOPHER HOUSE: AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Rosemary House, Canada, 2007; 48m
An exploration of the art and inspiration of celebrated Canadian choreographer Christopher House, the artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theater. ”If you’ve ever wondered about the point of dance, the answer is here.”
FEEL THE EARTH MOVE: THE GROS MORNE PROJECT
Anne Troake, Canada, 2007; 51m
Montreal’s Coleman Lemieux Dance Company descends upon a small community in Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park with a team of Canada’s finest artists. In a week they create a dance work that honors the land, the sea and the people of this unique place. Filmmaker Anne Troake known for her wildly successful short PRETTY BIG DIG turnsthe camera on the cultural exchange between townspeople and artists, capturing the moment of creation and the spectacular work itself.
JOUR DE FETE
Jacques Tati, France, 1949/1995, 70m
An inept rural village postman who interrupts his duties to inspect the traveling fair that has come to town. Influenced by too much wine and adocumentary on the rapidity of the American postal service, he goes to hilarious lengths to speed his mail deliveries aboard his bicycle. The films of Jacques Tati (1908 – 1982) are built around elaborate, tightly choreographed visual gags and carefully integrated sound effects. Tati plays the lead character, with his trademark raincoat, umbrella and pipe.
L’ECOLE DES FACTEURS
Jacques Tati, 1947, 15m
This short about postal training in rural France was expanded into a feature.
REINES D’UN JOUR
Pascal Magnin, Switzerland, 1996; 28m
Six tumbling bodies on mountain slopes of the Alps, caught between Heaven and Earth, among the cows and the villagers. This strikingly visual and sensual film triggered a wave of understanding among dancers when it was shown in Dance on Camera Festival 1997. Marie-Louise Nespolo, Christine Kung choreographed the work and performed with Veronique Ferrero, Roberto Molo, Mikel Aristegui, Antonio Bull.
CONTRECOUPS
Pascal Magnin, Switzerland, 1998; 23m
Choreographer Guilherme Botelho adapted this urban ballet for the screen in which two men and a woman battle with their inner demons.
CARGO
Kelly Hargraves, USA, 2007; 4m
One man’s pit stop on the road of life, where he pauses to rest and contemplate whether to continue the journey. Sometimes, dark, sometimes funny and always sexy, performer Joe Jurd fills the interior of a 1969 Buick Skylark with his physical and emotional self.
BOY
Rosemary Lee, Peter Anderson, UK, 1994; 6m
Considered a dance film classic, this solo turns an ordinary boy into a superhero, as he moves with stealth and grace through a dramatic coastal landscape, responding to this empty universe, manipulating it and conjuring up his own imaginary world.
MOTION CONTROL
Liz Aggiss/Billy Cowie, UK, 2002; 8m
A brilliant spoof by a heralded team from Brighton.
APROP
Aitor Echeverria, Spain, 2007; 6m, 35m
(Nominated for the Jury Prize)
Sleep interrupted by the brush of a familiar touch. The sigh of that voice inviting you to play. The most everyday gestures become, at close range, an extraordinary dance.
SHAKE OFF
Hans Beenhakker, The Netherlands, 2007; 9m, 35mm
Prince Credell solos in this HD-recorded dance film in one continous shot. The camera follows an exceptional dancer as he moves magically through different times and spaces. The athleticism and bold surprises lure the viewer into a dynamic world which teeters between the impossible and the real. The dancer can’t or won’t stop dancing till he finds his goal. Best Artist Performance Award at Golden Lion International Film Festival, Swaziland South Africa.
MORNING HERD
Rick Harvie, New Zealand, 2007; 7.25m
A comic insight into the battle of a farmer wrestling with the confinement of his animals in his yards.
DESCENT
Noemie Lafrance, USA, 2003; 5m
The Canadian-born dancer made quite a sensation with her site-specific installation with twelve women positioned on each floor of a twelve story stairwell in the NYC courthouse “The Clocktower.”
FOLIES D’ESPAGNE
Philip Buiser, USA, 2007; 7m
(Nominated for the Jury Prize)
A mysterious woman appears at court where manner and reputation are essential for survival. She breaks all the rules publicly and is ultimatelyput back in her place as a subject of the court. This work contrasts the formality of the Baroque aesthetic with contemporary issues of sexuality and class. Created in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Austin McCormick, winner of DFA’s Young Choreographers Initiative.
THE INN OF FLOATING IMAGERY
Kathy Rose, USA, 2007; 8m
This piece represents a kind of autobiographical vision. I use myself to create all the figures, sometimes employing masks from the Noh theater to vary my persona. A sea of richly colored figures floating and flying are accompanied by eerie sounds. The animated figures are constructed in the manner of puppetry and collage.
CAR MEN
Boris Paval Conem and Jiri Kylian, The Netherlands, 2006; 28m
(Nominated for the Jury Prize)
Sabina Kupferberg, Gioconda Barburo, Donald Krugel, Karel Hrusko make a playful take-off of the famous opera into a metaphor for time, speed, stillness, movement, youth and age, while making a salute to the slapstick silent film era. Czech-born choreographer Jiri Kylian and director Boris Paval Conen made this black-and-white film in a coalmine in the Czech Republic. Dutch composer Han Otten arranged Bizet’s music and added music specially composed for the film. The key prop in the film is a ”scrap car” reminiscent of the futurist Czech Tatra of the 1930s.
DIVA
Liz Aggiss, UK, 2007; 3.50m
A jaded dance diva processes up the red carpet. Craving the attention she deserves, she performs a magnificent reconstruction from 1927 of the little-known work Largo. Since nobody gives a fig she blows a dance raspberry and performs an impromptu rendition of Ranki Panki circa 2007. DIVA is where fact and fiction collide, archive and reportage rupture.
THE BENTFOOTES
Todd Alcott and Kriota Willberg, USA, 2007; 75m
The Bentfootes tells the story of fictitious every-choreographer, Susan Bentfoote (Nina Hellman), and her quasi-illustrious family, who managed to keep their demented muse alive for 200 years. Starring James Urbaniak as Susan’s boyfriend, this witty ”mockumentary” – a cross between Spinal Tap and Ken Burns – combines a memorial concert, interviews with family and friends and historical footage into a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the American dancer’s artistic aesthetic from Post-revolutionary times to the present.
INEARTHIA
Simon Halbedo, Nazario Branca, Maren Sandmann, Switzerland, 2006; 2:15m
A creative attempt to spin the Earth.
NIU NIU’s STORY
Mariel McEwan, USA, 2007; 6.22m
Dance, animation, and humor reveal the training and career of a young Chinese girl, Jia Wu, who was born to dance.
SCRAP LIFE
Su-En, Sweden, 2006; 8.30m
An homage to the art of recycling set at a scrap yard.
PAVILLON NOIR
Pierre Coulibeuf, France, 2006; 24m
Pierre Coulibeuf adapts contemporary artistic universes. His films invent a marginal language, are critical of established forms and question the ways of presentation. Pavillion Noir highlights the virtual relations between the choreography of Angelin Prejlocaj, the architecture, the urban space and the landscape.
BALKAN BAROQUE
Pierre Coulibeuf, France, 1999; 63m
BALKAN BAROQUE is not a documentary on artist Marina Abramovic, nor a film to promote her performances, but rather a cinematic and artistic work by Pierre Coulibeuf, autonomous. It’s a wonderful portrait of this highly unusual artist but it’s the vision of Coulibeuf, the vision of an artist.
LE DEMON DU PASSAGE
Pierre Coulibeuf, France, 1995; 14m
Landscapes in which characters appear, disappear and reappear, seemingly trying to make a connection with one another but always in transition, here and elsewhere, obsessing about love, betrayal, seeking answers. The confrontation is always between a fixed image and a moving on– a fiction inspired by the photography of Jean-Luc Moulene, as other films have been collaborations with contemporary painters and other visual artists.
LA VIE EST BELLE
Tristan Duhamel, France, 2004; 3.13m
A character of street-art painted by Jérôme Mesnager is dancing and running on the walls of Paris, animated by Tristan Duhamel.
INSIDE THE CIRCLE
Marcy Garriott, USA, 2007; 102m
(Nominated for the Jury Prize)
Capturing the raw power of a grassroots hip-hop movement, INSIDE THE CIRCLE tells the story of two talented b-boys, Josh and Omar, former best friends who become rivals when they join competing dance crews. Omar rises tointernational renown, while Josh tangles with the law. The “B’Boy City”- competitive events thrown by visionary street dancer Romeo Navarro – serve as emotional milestones in their journey to adulthood. As Romeo aptly observes, “If you can hold yourself down in battle, you can hold yourself down in life.”
WATER FLOWING TOGETHER 
Gwendolen Cates, USA, 2007; 77m
(Winner of The 2008 Jury Prize)
This splendid documentary is a compelling cinematic portrait of former NYCB Principal Dancer Jock Soto. Exploring both his Navajo Indian and Puerto Rican roots, as well as his extraordinary career as one of the ballet world’s most gifted and celebrated dancers, this is a candid portrayal of an artist and a man.
UNDERGROUND DANCE MASTERS: Final History of a Forgotten Er
Thomas Guzman-Sanchez, USA, 2007; 144m
A tour de force exploration of the origin, evolution, history and the creators of the Urban Dance forms of Boogaloo, Locking, Popping, Roboting, Rocking and B’boying.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
In collaboration with Video Scanners, Dance on Camera presents Armond White, and his new look at how pop video artists preserve the dance tradition while creating new ways of moving, grooving and art-making. This program traces dance–back to the future–from soundstage to the street. From era-defining movements of Michael Jackson to Michael Jordan, Madonna and others, White surveys how Hollywood musical choreographers inspired new generations of disciplined and eye-dazzling pop dance and shows how these artists use dance for powerful personal expression.
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