Screening Schedule
Friday, 11/15 @ The Northwest Film Forum
7:00 PM - Truce
7:40 PM - "The Beacon" performance
7:45 PM - "Vanishing Seattle: The Beacon" Screening + Q&A
8:25 PM - Reverie
Program: Arachne
This program binds stories of women wrestling with intersecting identities and narratives that are overlooked in society - similar to the mythological Arachne's tapestry.
ALBA
Lena Marie Rheinländer | Switzerland | 10 minutes | SPARK Student Film
Based on the mystical mood and playful rhythms of the composition "Morteratsch" by Céline Fankhauser, the short film explores in two parts the inner world of one person‘s persona and its cycle of unity, individualization, dispersion and independence. The film is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between various art departments at Zurich University of the Arts.
Infinite Infants
Tianming Zhou | United States | 5 minutes | SPARK Student Film
When the goddess of life embraces the love of humanity, she relinquishes her immortality. She imparts the wisdom of spirituality and reincarnation to human beings, and together they walk to the other side.
You Are Here
Magdalena Hutter | Canada | 6 minutes | SPARK Student Film
A short documentary dance film about what we think is good and beautiful and valueable – and what fat bodies and dance can really do.
seCURE
Jana Dünner | Switzerland | 8 minutes | SPARK Student Film
In the powerful short film "seCURE," sexual violence and its aftermath are explored through the captivating perspectives of four survivors. Through expressive dance and poetry, their inner world is unveiled, depicting their search for safety. As they navigate a seemingly comforting yet lifeless environment, the key held between their fingers becomes a guiding symbol. Ultimately, the film conveys the profound journey towards finding safety within their own bodies.
ADAM
Samantha Shay | Germany | 4 minutes | Dance Film
Adam is a short dance film that emerges from rehearsals for the dance theater piece Life in this House is Over by director Samantha Shay. Exploring the social awkwardness of grief, and inspired by the writing of Anton Chekhov, the project gathers current and former artists of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, as well as the Grotowski Institute-based physical theater company Teatr ZAR, as a reflection on the lineages of Polish Jerzy Grotowski and German Pina Bausch, their relationship and how their work resonates today. This particular solo was shot very close to the death of dancer/choreographer, and longtime collaborator of Pina Bausch, Julie Anne Stanzak’s father, Adam Stanzak, the film is lovingly named and dedicated in his memory.
1,001 Won't Be So Bad
Gabe Mouritzen | United States | 7 minutes | SPARK Student Film
A narrative dance film about the romanticization, realization, and acceptance of a past love.
Noora
Anna Kekkonen | Finland | 8 minutes | Dance Film
She is a dancer. Her body's impulses are generated in the moment from contact with different environments. Noora has congenital bone fragility, Osteogenesis Imperfecta. She uses a wheelchair as a dancing aid and in it, she can move widely, but feels isolated from the surrounding environment. She is searching ways to move, focusing on possibilities rather than on limitations. On the ground, she feels the ground against her skin. In the water she can let go of her wheelchair. Noora's toes sink into the mud bottom, which pulsates with her steps. The water supports her fragile body with its pressure and surrounded by it she dares to move more freely, her body is more elastic, her expressions and range of motion are greater.
Program: displace
This program means to tell the emotional story of grief and grappling with the displacement of the self or soul. Ultimately that soul will break out into nature, or peace — away from those non-traditional, built environments.
Enter Another Space
Junyi Zhang | China | 8 minutes | Dance Film
GHOSTS IN YOU
Raphael A. López | United States | 4 minutes | SPARK Student Film
About grief…
Feeling
Paulina Michta | Poland | 12 minutes | SPARK Student Film
Łucja and Fillip fell in love with each other because of their shared passion. They both dance in class and outside of it, making their lives more vibrant. But all of this ends when Łucja gets injured. Will the relationship survive the trial?
Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child
Paul Flé | France | 4 minutes | Dance Film
Aeterna
Hannah Goodman | United Kingdom | 6 minutes | SPARK Student Film
Aeterna is a movement-based film that explores the feeling of personal insignificance when confronted with the complexity of human existence. By combining choreography and cinematography, the film plays with distorting the human form, offering a visual representation of our place in the world.
If I Were You
Margot Gelber | United States | 9 minutes | Dance Film
In "If I Were You" a couple shares an oscillating dance of intention and disruption--their movements a continuous exchange of support and potential peril, pushing them toward self-discovery. Falling into known patterns, but desperate to shift, they beckon and reject each other, careening toward togetherness. This is a slow, exhausting, mesmerizing dance, steeped in the unknown, where souls wait patiently to be held, released, and resolved.
Cendres (Cinders)
Oskar Luko | Spain | 7 minutes | SPARK Student Film
A man ascends through a dry and inhospitable landscape, searching for the appropriate place to perform his intimate and personal rite of expiation, as a vital need to reconnect with his environment and his present.
Program: Reverie
Reverie explores themes of escapism and the process of mental freedom while infusing surreal and dreamlike imagery to get a deeper look at the individual psyche.
STAGE
Saleh Fallahi | Iran | 8 minutes | Dance Film
In a world where dance for girls is forbidden, a group of courageous young dancers from Iran dare to dream of gracing the world's grandest stages, though only within the sanctuary of their imaginations. As they face the harsh reality of societal restrictions, their passion for dance fuels their collective dream. In their dreams, they imagine themselves performing on these prestigious stages, but the harsh truth remains—they can only dream. Through their artistry, they silently protest the ban, shedding light on the power of dreams to transcend boundaries, even when reality denies them the chance to make it a reality.
Ruins Within Ruins
Lefteris Parasyris | Greece | 9 minutes | Dance Film
A group of dancers positions themselves between the ancient and modern ruins of the island of Crete, Greece. Drawing inspiration from its rich heritage, they craft a series of kinetic forms and patterns influenced by folk dances. These installations, whether harmonising with or contrasting against the island's culture, offer reflections on historical memory and the Cretan identity.
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When the lights are on
Paul Flé | France | 4 minutes | Dance Film
BY A THREAD
Alysia Fae Klein | Republic of Korea | 7 minutes | Dance Film
Visual allegory of societal restrictions on autonomy in South Korea against the outbreak of COVID.
AWAKENING
Sze - Ting HUANG | Taiwan | 4 minutes | Dance Film
The body serves as a vessel that stores self-awareness. This film initially develops through the sense of touch, picking up traces of various emotions left along the journey. It constantly moves, pauses, and intersects, driven by the power generated through shifting of balance, prompting a dialogue between the body and memory, re-experiencing the mutual influence of "internal" and "external," thus reflecting on one's own state of floating unease. As the final note of music fades away, the consciousness of constraints is awakened. After experiencing all of this, is it ultimately gaining the drive to move forward? Or is it discovering oneself endlessly trapped in a cycle like Sisyphus?
Ethereal
Gustavo Ramirez | United States | 6 minutes | Dance Film
Living in a world where distractions are at an all-time high, sometimes our only escape are those intimate moments where we can let our imagination fly freely. In moments of relaxation, we often reminisce about what could be or ask ourselves, “who am I”? Suddenly, we find ourselves living that dream— experiencing that ethereal moment where our mind and soul are in complete harmony. We feel at peace within ourselves, only to realize it was just a dream or perhaps not. "Ethereal" is a film inspired by Jorge Issac’s poem “Ve, Pensamiento” (Go, Thoughts), in which he discusses the importance of freeing oneself and fostering creativity, allowing continuous dreaming and unrestrained freedom, as death eventually comes for us all.
Immortals
Mark Durand | Canada | 5 minutes | Dance Film
Immortals is an experimental documentary short film shot in 8mm that explores the introspection of an artist, Bettina Szabo. The film delves into her relationship with her sense of belonging, her body, her imagination, and nature. Sometimes one must lose oneself to find oneself better, and burn everything down to start anew on a solid foundation.
Program: Truce
Truce expresses ideas of discontent from restrictions induced by personal choices, physical surroundings, and societal expectations, while juxtaposing pessimisticism with freedom of space and the power of communal empathy. This collection of films contemplates the turmoil of anthropocentric conflicts with consideration for glimmers of hope amongst struggles.
Monday
Andreas Guzman | Hong Kong | 5 minutes | Dance Film
Nobody loves Mondays. The return to the grind haunts every office worker worldwide. Paperwork piles up, conference calls overload, and the suits and ties bind us to the monotony of the workday. But even within the overbearing nature of Monday, the everyday working person can find their escape from the corporate work culture and discover their inner peace.
liminal
Elias Djemil | Canada | 5 minutes | Dance Film
Between oscillation and cohabitation, the exploration of a body on the borders of shadow and light.
LIMINAL.
Intermediate space between two states, transitional, intentional, indeterminate and dichotomous.
Play/Repeat
Carlos E. Lesmes | Estonia | 8 minutes | Dance Film
There is a couple. Two bodies. Two beings. 1+1. Sometimes it feels like only one. This film piece wants to explore aspects of a relationship through movement, through the bodies of the performers. The unfathomable distance between two people. Broke but never broken.
Perfect Storm
RJ Muna | United States | 3 minutes | Dance Film
A dancer struggles with her confinement.
Burn From The Inside
Mthuthuzeli November | United Kingdom | 10 minutes | Dance Film
'Burn from the Inside' is not your typical narrative work. It delves into the exploration of music and its origins, examining why we have an innate desire to dance or move when we hear music, sound, or voices. It seeks to understand the essence of what triggers our movements and the emotional responses evoked by music.
Events
Discover the story behind the lens with our filmmakers
Screening: Vanishing Seattle: The Beacon
Will Lemke | United States | 15 minutes | Dance Film
In 2013, members of the Massive Monkees, Seattle’s acclaimed breaking crew, opened The Beacon Studio in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. After many successful years of growth and development in the dance community, the studio closed in 2020 with uncertainty of whether it would ever reopen. This is the story of The Beacon’s comeback in a city of vanishing mainstays.
Nov 15, 8PM PST
Q&A with "Vanishing Seattle" Team
Join us for a discussion and Q&A with the team behind the film "Vanishing Seattle" at the Northwest Film Forum (In-Person).
Nov 15, 8:20PM PST
Arachne: Discussion and Q&A
Join us for a discussion and Q&A with the filmmakers behind the films included in the program "Arachne" (Virtual Screening).
Nov 22, 1PM PST
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