Dance Films: Kinetic Novellas

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2020
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

Based on the dance films I have seen in the past two years, I can say that the authors too often lack a sense of film as a medium: the dance is there, but the film is not. It is forgotten that time, space, characters and what surrounds and creates them function differently on film than on stage.

The second problematic area is the clumsy integration of choreography into the world of film, which causes the language of dance on film to seem unjustified and not communicative enough. In those instances, dance does not say much and the reason a body moves a specific way remains uncertain.

In the films that have been selected this year, the authors have created comprehensive worlds, despite the intricacy of the genre, and dance (in some cases movement as a whole) is a natural part of those worlds. These films are great examples of how space and a dancing body can form an eloquent whole, which in turn creates a spacious and voluminous world.

Arolin Raudva

choreographer-dancer

Festival programmer for Dance Films

Films

Baltic premiere

Fibonacci

Local title
Fibonacci
Director
Tomáš Hubáček
Country
Czech Republic
Year
2020

Human flock flows through wavy fields. An unenlightened hunter crosses its path. Environmental dance film or audiovisual meditation on Fibonacci patterns in the landscape, herd behavior, film structure and music.

Director
Tomáš Hubáček
Runtime

Baltic premiere

Divided We Scroll

Local title
Eraldatult me skrollime
Director
Klaas Diersmann
Country
United Kingdom
Year
2019

Technology is rewiring our brains and changing both our physical movements and inner thought processing. 'Divided We Scroll' is an experimental and eerie depiction of our intimate relationships with these technologies, which have become obsessive, compulsive and divisive. Through contemporary dance, we explore the chilling reality of a constantly connected world where data and software is continuing to redefine us within an increasingly complex technological network.

Director
Klaas Diersmann
Runtime

Baltic premiere

Call of Pink

Local title
Roosa kutsung
Country
Romania
Year
2020

We can easily say that our life is a game, not an ordinary one where you can determine the story, the space and the characters, but a game which comes with opportunities and traps, with gains and losses, a game we have to play every second, a game in which we are rooted. Sometimes we choose the virtual space in order to escape reality, but in the end it turns out to be just a way to avoid the real game, our everyday life. We see the big changes as new levels in our lives and we don’t have the option to skip, our only choice is to play. So, the “Call of Pink” comes with the positive point of view that the world needs to overcome the real life levels, which we all know are the hardest to pass. Anyway, some details as creativity and fun are the things we should keep as weapons for the reality.

Runtime

Baltic premiere

Delimitation

Local title
Piiritlemine
Original title
Vymezení
Director
Tereza Vejvodová
Country
Czech Republic
Year
2019

The young woman is looking for an apartment in busy metropolis, while overcoming an ubiquitous alienation and trying to find closeness. Film uses combination of stylised movements and expressive dance to discover new forms of film language with emphasis on the role of sound and picture more than dialogue. As she explores the spaces, a new meaning is given to seemingly banalities of everyday life. Physical dialogue with the void begins as the question of space identity in an anonymous cityscape.

Director
Tereza Vejvodová
Runtime
Language
Czech

Baltic premiere

Go!

Local title
Mine!
Original title
Va!
Director
Vittorio Campanella, Riccardo Maione
Country
Italy
Year
2019

The dancing migration through a day, periphery and body.

Director
Vittorio Campanella, Riccardo Maione
Runtime

European premiere

SIMULACRA

Local title
SIMULAAKRUM
Director
Curry Sicong Tian
Country
USA
Year
2020

An old Geisha’s life journey about identity, perception, relationships between Eastern and Western Culture, and circularity/dualism.

Director
Curry Sicong Tian
Runtime
Language
Japanese