Film Catalogue
Gimp Gait Out of Competition
Pioneer Winter, Tabatha Mudra, 2016, US, 5 min
Gimp Gait is a solo for two – surrogates to one another. It includes an exploration of the subjects' private and public lives and how the perspective of the viewer may attempt to control or shape who they are. The title of the film discloses its origin: 'gimp', a slur meant to mark a weak or handicapped person and 'gait', the manner or style of a person's walk. Can you notice every part of their bodies – both the similarities and differences?
D3C05 Out of Competition
Blaze Gonzalez, Hannah Gaengler, 2021, US, 4 min
D3C05 is a sci-fi love letter to Miami’s Art Deco architecture. The film takes the idea of optimistic futurism and reimagines the concept within a neo-human world, where the boundaries between human, nature, and object coalesce; a world where synesthetic communication and performative rituals reign.
HOW TO: Oh, look at me Out of Competition
GeoVanna Gonzalez, 2021, US, 12 min
HOW TO: Oh, look at me features four femmes of color. Two dancers and two poets interact with one another through words and movement, seeking reprieve from the constructs of our current reality. Revolving around a deconstructed playground, an installation designed by director and multidisciplinary artist GeoVanna Gonzalez.
When We Are Born Out of Competition
Mathieu ‘Moon’ Saura, Ólafur Arnalds, 2021, IS, 25 min
A collaboration between Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds and filmmaker Vincent Moon, When We Are Born is a journey about rituals, relationships and our inner landscapes. Filmed in Iceland in the summer of 2020 and based partly on Ólafur’s life, the work ultimately focuses on how we all move forward; a theme made especially potent in the times of disconnection and isolation it emerged from. The music of the film was recorded live on location and interpreted by choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir and the Iceland Dance Company.
Kankantri Breaking the Chains
Gabri Christa, 2024, NL, SR, US, 25 min
A woman enters a Synagogue and is transported to the parallel universe of all her ancestors who do not let her leave until she participates in their dances and rituals. The film is inspired by Gabri Christa’s first time visiting the Neve Shalom in 2000 where she was overwhelmed by the building and the emotions it brought to her. It spurred her into researching her Surinamese father’s lineage, which revealed that she had indeed also Jewish ancestors. As the famous Surinamese writer Cynthia McCleod says “when you shake your family trees, a few Jews fall out”.
Q5: The Quintessentials Out of Competition
Sarada Sarita, 2024, NL, 70 min
Q5 is inspired by the energy, feeling and expressiveness of Waacking; also known as Whacking or Punking. A dance form that emerged in the 1970s as an expression of oppression in the Latin and African-American LGBTQI+ underground clubs of Los Angeles. Through the sounds and movement language of Waacking, the 5 performers in the film dive into the 5th dimension. They explore different colors, portals, perspectives and worlds within worlds. All in search of the essence: The Quintessentials! The original theater performance and tour of '21 was canceled due to Covid and transformed into a 5-episode Waacking movie series that festively closes Cinedans FEST '24!
Dipped in Black Out of Competition
Matthew Thorne, Derik Lynch, 2022, AU, 25 min
When memories from his childhood come to the surface, Derik Lynch, a Yankunytjatjara man, escapes white city life in Adelaide to return back home to his remote Anangu Community (Aputula) to perform on sacred Inma ground. Inma is a traditional form of visual, verbal, and physical storytelling. It is how the Anangu have been passing down stories connected to the land, dreams and myths for over 60,000+ years from generation to generation.
If I Can’t Dance Out of Competition
Dorothy CHEUNG, 2022, HK, 17 min
She faces endless rehabilitation; her body keeps recalling the injury; she wishes to appease, yet she fell……Three dancers who have confronted injuries filled the visual with strain on the body. The film ponders how to co-exist with the trauma and keep going after one’s world falls apart.
Mountains, Seas, Panorama Out of Competition
Wilfred Wong, 2023, HK, 35 min
Based on the legendary Chinese folktale Kua-fu Chases the Sun in the scripture of Mountain and Sea from 4th century BC. As in the legend, the film, employing the language of dance, tells the wondrous story of a modern man on a daring quest to chase the sun. When the enigmatic creatures depicted in the book begin to infiltrate his dreams, he suspects that he has crossed paths with them.
This is A Chicken Coop Out of Competition
Er Gao, 2016, CN, 17 min
With the China’s reform and opening up which began in 1979, it became big differences among areas’ economic development level. The population migration occurred with accelerated urbanization process, like birds. The cognition of hometown and native place has changed qualitatively. As the impact of modern technology on chicken in chicken coop, no one could escape. They are all domesticated. City is like a modern chicken coop, and people are like the domesticated chicken. Imagining human beings returning to an original state and conventional rules ae no longer apply. Imagining human beings are objectified and the next dominating species have a completely different social system - what would the world be like? Whenever we observe and approach other creatures, they are observing and approaching us at the same time.
Three Out of Competition
NAOTO Iina, 2022, JP, 17 min
Three performers, Kawamura Mikiko, Kawaguchi Takao and Matsuoka Dai, studied three pieces of choreography by Butoh legends – Ohno Kazuo, Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Yoshito to replicate their works not by imitation but responded to the spirit of Butoh in contemporary ways.
Flying Low Out of Competition
Freya Björg Olafson, 2011, CA, 2 min
Created with virtual bodies found online, Flying Low is part of Freya Björg Olafson’s ‘Keystroke Choreographies’ series. Each of the videos in the series are compositional studies that use popular contemporary dance techniques as a framework for virtual choreography. Flying Low is a movement technique developed by David Zambrano that focuses on the dancers’ relationship with the floor. Movement patterns involving breath, speed, and release are used to activate the relationship between a dancer’s core and joints, as they move into and away from the ground with efficiency.
Being Being Out of Competition
Alexander Ekman, 2023, SE, 6 min
A minimalist dance film by Alexander Ekman, Being Being follows a man through a series of expressive motions, portraying the ups and downs of existence. Navigating between moments of strength and vulnerability, the performer reflects the resilience inherent in the human spirit.
Table for One, Please Out of Competition
Samantha Shay, 2024, DE, GB, 14 min
Table for One, Please is a short film that emerges from rehearsals for the dance theater piece I Should Have a Party for All the Thoughts I Didn’t Say 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.
A Drifting Up Out of Competition
Jacob Lee, 2022, GB, 10 min
It takes 6 weeks to come off antidepressants. A man tries to dance his way through it, armed only with a boombox and a sign inviting people to join him. From over 100 hours of footage shot on the streets of Bristol and London, this film documents a journey from isolation to connection.
Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance Out of Competition
Khadifa Wong, 2020, US, 94 min
Follow the fascinating evolution of jazz dance from its origins in Africa, through to its modern-day interpretations which reveal the political and social influences affecting the dance form today. Through this celebration of the art form, with special appearances from industry stars such as Debbie Allen, George Faison, Chita Rivera, Camille A. Brown and Thomas F. DeFrantz, a spellbinding story of triumph over adversity, oppression, and privilege is uncovered.
Feminism WTF Out of Competition
Katharina Mückstein, 2023, AT, 96 min
Feminism for beginners – and for everyone else who needs to shake up their habitual thinking! A lively discussion club of a film that tests the many theories in practice through social experiments and performative interventions. Feminism WTF reflects on current debates and analyzes the potential of intersectional feminism to profoundly change our future societies. In the film speakers from different disciplines, from biology and linguistics to political and educational sciences, as well as dance artists, contribute to a comprehensive picture on gender equality in our society. Experts such as sociologist Laura Wiesböck, gender scientist Maisha Auma, political scientist Nikita Dhawa, men's researcher Christoph May, sexologist Rona Torenz, and sociologist Paula Villa Braslavsky have their say.
Shelf Life Out of Competition
Meg Stuart, 2023, AT, DE, 24 min
In her new video work, choreographer Meg Stuart explores the Vorklinik, a modernist building erected in 1971-76 for the University of Graz’s medical faculty, that has meanwhile been demolished, as it was considered too dysfunctional for further use. Together with two dancers, Stuart attempts to mark this brutal transition through a sensorial processing of the building’s vast, empty spaces. Like the modernist project, the attempt to fit their bodies into the architecture of the Vorklinik is slated to fail. With tenderness and sensuality, they connect past and future, dream and decay.
Obsessed with Light Out of Competition
Sabine Krayenbühl, Zeva Oelbaum, 2023, US, 90 min
Obsessed with Light is not a bio-pic of pioneer Loïe Fuller, but rather an insightful examination of the artistry and incredible impact her work still has on contemporary culture, including artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Taylor Swift and Shakira. The American creator of modern dance, Fuller (1862-1928), created a completely new kind of spectacle which combined dance, fabric and movement. She propelled herself into swirling abstractions which made audiences gasp and she immediately understood the importance of copyright and protecting the ownership of innovations. Creating a dialogue between the past and the present, artists such as Robert Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Iris van Herpen, William Kentridge, Trajal Harrell and Studio Drift speak about her influence in their own work.
A Revolution of Love Out of Competition
Weyni Mengesha + Lucius Dechausay, 2020, CA, 5 min
A young black woman grapples with the histories of her ancestors and the present-day violence ravaging her community. She begins to imagine what her future looks like through dance.
Never Look At The Sun Breaking the Chains
Baloji , 2019, FR, 5 min
Using his trademark assemblage of esoteric costume and visual metaphors, Congolese-Belgian hitmaker and filmmaker Baloji explores the practice of skin lightening in black communities. Euphemistically described as ‘brightening’ or ‘toning’, skin bleaching takes many innocuous forms, such as creams, buffs and soaps to deal with hyperpigmentation, but is more often used by women to emulate Eurocentric beauty standards.
Q5: The Quintessentials | The Purple Episode Out of Competition
Sarada Sarita, 2024, NL, 24 min
Q5 is inspired by the energy, feeling and expressiveness of Waacking; also known as Whacking or Punking. A dance form that emerged in the 1970s as an expression of oppression in the Latin and African-American LGBTQI+ underground clubs of Los Angeles. Through the sounds and movement language of Waacking, the 5 performers in the film dive into the 5th dimension. They explore different colors, portals, perspectives and worlds within worlds. All in search of the essence: The Quintessentials! The original theater performance and tour of '21 was canceled due to Covid and transformed into a 5-episode Waacking movie series that festively closes Cinedans FEST '24!
The Purple Episode is the last episode of the series and includes a Theater Scene and the Beyond The Whack - Behind the scenes content, as well as the performers' Mission Statement and the last historical chapter, exploring what is the essence, and how can we preserve and protect that to take to our future dream visions for the dance, culture, community & BEYOND!?
We Need Prayers: This One Went to Market Breaking the Chains
Jim Chuchu, The Nest Collective, 2017, KE, 5 min
How far are you willing to go for your hustle? A young Kenyan visual artist comes up with a sly plan to take over the art world abroad. Will it work? This One Went to Market is part of the mini-series by The Nest Collective, in partnership with Forum Syd, dedicated to the city of Nairobi and its citizens – trying to live to see another day, to get that cash, to get home, to get a job.
Tajabone Breaking the Chains
Raphael Chatelain & Nicolas Huchard, 2021, FR, 4 min
This is what freedom feels like, baby.” The uncompromising words of musician and writer Mykki Blanco echo over a transcendental parade of a group of empowered queer dancers. A film about the French black queer community taking pride in who they are, what they have achieved, and embracing the bodies they are in. Tajabone takes its name from a unique tradition in Senegal, where in addition to singing and dancing through the streets everyone practices cross dressing through the night.
Ria Higler | 50 years SNDO Out of Competition
SNDO | Cinedans, 2024, NL, 50 min
To celebrate half a century of SNDO - School for New Dance Development of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, as a laboratory for dance and performance, a trajectory of public events is unfolding from January 2024 and on. Cinedans proudly joins with the co-production and presentation of a documentary honoring Ria Higler’s legacy. Ria Higler can be considered a 'mother-spirit' of SNDO. A graduate of the first student cohort of Moderne Dans Opleiding, as SNDO was called back in 1976, she transitioned into teaching in 1980. From 1989 to 1998, she served as the co-director of the school alongside Trude Cone, continuing as a core team member, mentor, and teacher until April 2024, when she passed away. Drawing from Higler’s personal archive, which includes hours of footage from her travels in India and Indonesia, as well as recordings of her performances and interviews with those who worked and studied alongside her, this documentary aims to activate the archive and ensure her teachings, spirit and legacy remain visible and accessible for further generations. The film serves as a visual ode celebrating the life and work of one of SNDO's longest-standing and profoundly impactful educators.
downriver Out of Competition
Andrea Boll, 2020, CH, min
A group of people emerges from the water. They try to work against the current of the river and the crowd of people in the city, but surrender to the flow and are washed ashore. Going with the flow or against it, resistance and devotion manifest as a basic instinct. A strategy of survival.
Circe Out of Competition
Bowie Verschuuren, 2018, NL, min
Retelling of the classic myth of Circe and Odysseus. Circe overcomes the deception of an unanswered love and lets him go.
Heartache Out of Competition
Iker Karrera & Alberto D. Centeno, 2023, ES, 3 min
Heartache deploys tensely expressive movement in a darkly playful take on the dynamics of seeing and being seen. Dark humor, sarcastic imagery and expressive choreography conveyed a unique atmosphere to color the interactions between the dancers and their setting.
Branché Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Janique L Robillard, Eric Bates , 2023, CA, 16 min
Through unique female circus and movement art, Branché traverses time and Quebec's lush natural landscapes. While diminishing resources and livable land are causing existential collapse, the performers' bold three-high formations and breathtaking falls remind us that a oneness of nature and humanity is undoubtedly worth preserving.
Leleb Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Marc Aziz Ressang, Nathaniel J Brown, 2022, ID, 3 min
Set in the flooded villages of Java, Indonesia, this dance film attempts to come to terms with the despair that surrounds a disappearing home. Leleb is dedicated to those who endure.
Spellbound New Dutch
Nicola Hepp, 2023, NL, 11 min
A woman walks slowly through a dark, untouched forest. She is following someone in the distance, someone she can’t quite make out. Or is the other actually following her? Too late, the woman regrets a desperate attempt to escape her pursuer. As she starts to understand and approaches the point of no return, she is lured into making a dire decision.
The Paper Ensemble #16 Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Jiska Rickels, Jochem van Tol, 2022, NL, 16 min, 0+
In an old empty paper factory, we follow a woman playing with sculptures made of paper. Inspired by the design of Japanese gardens, #16 by The Paper Ensemble invites you to be receptive to a world made entirely out of the sounds of paper: crackling bushes, ocean waves and singing whales.
Until Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Tanin Torabi, 2023, IR, 13 min
We walk. We run. We fall. We hug those whom we love and then we run again. We walk together until the walls move.
SOMA Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Arturo Bandinelli, 2023, GB, 10 min, 12+
A contemporary myth on the genesis of the human body, the film oscillates between two distinct dimensions: an infinite black hole, where bodies exist outside linear space and time; and a labyrinthine house, where a strange decadent gathering takes place. As the dreamlike narrative unfolds, different characters go through experiences of love, enchantment, pain and death.
MisFit Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Conner Bell, 2023, US, 12 min
On her way home from a dance rehearsal, a young woman’s spiraling thoughts begin to blur past and present as she questions her identity and place in the world.
The Key Is online potential
Tyler Carney-Faleatua, 2022, NZ, 11 min
'The Key Is' focuses on the idea of wanting to leave a space before one is ready. We see a dancer wanting to pass through this space but then quickly come to realise that they are not in control of this decision. In order to unlock the door, they have a lesson to learn. They need to embrace their whole self, including the ugly and dark parts. It is not until they honestly welcome a darker sense of themselves that they are allowed to leave. This story is portrayed through contemporary, street dance and krump movement that is brought alive though dancer, Ooshcon.
Herbarium online potential
Iwona Pasińska, 2021, PL, 13 min
It is a fairy-tale episode, told with tenderness, gushing with the intense colours of flowers and élan vital. Choreography composed to a suite by Edward Grieg and presented by the artists-dancers of the Polish Dance Theatre takes the audience into the world of flora. It allows to explore a day in the life of a plant from the moment it blooms to the end, drowned in warm nostalgia. We invite you to immerse yourself in the beautiful world of flowers and leaves, in the greens, reds and purples transitioning to the greys and browns of the autumn. And all this told with movement to the rhythm of the dynamic sounds of the suite Peer Gynt op. 1 performed by Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera.
When Sleep Enfolded Her online potential
Grégoire Verbeke , 2023, BE, EG, 10 min
Almost full moon in an arid mountain landscape. A young woman waters her flowering plants. The riverbed is dried out. She is at one with her silence. When sleep enfold her on the broken earth, she is transposed home.
When Sleep Enfolded Her offers a portrait of young woman looking for tenderness in a vaste environment. A deceptively simple, choreographed dance filmed in the heart of an oasis endangered by drought.
The Machines New Dutch
Publik Universal Frxnd, 2023, NL, 19 min
This short documentary follows two performers who mix traditional clog dancing from the North West of the UK with choreography for two modified fitness machines based on agricultural yokes. Clog dancing is said to have originated in East Lancashire from the weaving mills of the 19th century, where working women would tap to the rhythm of the machines. The film explores identity and belonging in the context of industrialisation and economic migration and how movement, as a result, has been transformed by it.
UWD Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Myriam Verreault, Brigitte Poupart, 2023, CA, 18 min
Until We Die is a poetic film, set in a devastated world where collective disorder is the precondition for survival. Eloquently moving bodies replace the spoken word and reveal the bruised characters, haunted by a past sweeter than the crumbling world they find themselves in.
This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands.
Carried in Silence Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Vilma Tihilä, 2023, FI, 11 min
Carried in Silence is an extract of a relation between a mother and a daughter. Through contemporary dance and classical music the film speaks about intergenerational trauma and suppressed emotions, carried in silence. The chain of generations is also reflected in the music of the film, composed by Isabella Leonarda in the 17th century – one of the few female composers of her era.
I dream no more I remember Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Dehors/Audela (Salvatore Insana, Elisa Turco Liveri), 2023, IT, 12 min
A gateway, a threshold and a figure pausing, maneuvering his being within a misplaced frame. I dream no more I remember is a palindrome film, a mystical ritual in a magical and archaic place. An homage to the poetry of Lorenzo Calogero.
Urban Genesis Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Fu Le, 2023, FR, VN, 18 min
Phuong is released from prison and returns to her home province. She finds Khang, her childhood sweetheart, but no longer recognizes her village. All the small factories in the province have closed, and the big city suddenly bristled with countless skyscrapers. Urban Genesis questions the place left to love when time passes faster than the clouds.
Thick Skin Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Laura Steiner, 2022, CO, 3 min
To be able to live in Bogotá, you need a skin that can adapt, that can turn reptilian when it doesn't stop raining for weeks and that can go soft when the woman in the corner shop gives you a free morning coffee. Thick Skin is a dance film that takes the viewer through the Colombian capital, high above the Andes, with stylized movement that speaks of life in the bustling city.
In the Same Boat Out of Competition
Mervi Junkkonen, Mia Malviniemi, 2023, FI, SE, 8 min
A film about the limits of the aging body and the boundless mind. Rauno's story takes us on a boat trip with his father. A journey of misadventures and his father's new Finnish record in cursing.
Buoyant Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Đoàn Thanh Toàn & Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc, 2023, VN, 19 min
In this non-dialogue tale, set along the coast of Vietnam, a mermaid is rescued from the fish market by a fisherman. As the hero carries her back to the ocean they are joined by two seahorses. Upon her awakening on the beach the mermaid performs a sensual dance. But her joy is short-lived: the waves have other plans.
Fight or Flight New Dutch
Jody Geijsendorpher, 2023, NL, 12 min
In a dystopian world, freedom comes with ranking. An MMA fighter is about to step on the ring when his social anxiety disorder takes over. The only way he knows how to deal with his fears is to either fight or flight, but this only takes him further away from winning the game.
A Fire in My Belly Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Naomi Kats, Elie Polyrock Haddad, 2023, IL, IT, 3 min
“Simple is complex and complex is simple.” Choreographer and director Naomi Kats exposes the internal world and the perspective we hold on our thoughts. To which extent do we allow ourselves to choose, and to look in the mirror?
the_ongoing_process_of_trying_to_make_sense Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition
Martin Klukas, 2023, DE, 16 min
In the process of encountering an abandoned building, multi-disciplinary artist Martijn Klukas playfully tests our perception in a series of parables. Representation, decontextualization, deconstruction and sequentiality in text, image and sound playfully reveal an intuitive body that constantly searches for meaning and expanded connections.
SUPERSEXUAL online potential
Kosta Karakashyan, 2023, BG, IT, 6 min
A young Bulgarian man, riding the endless rollercoaster of workouts, anonymous sex, and dopamine, asks how to finally get off in a world where the body is everything. The film explores the obsession of queer men with their bodies as an object of desire, pleasure, and self-confidence and probes how the body is weaponized in fitness, sex, and hookup culture. Collecting footage from video games, 3D scans, online conversations, and archive footage of the ideal male body, the film asks if it is possible to completely detach from our bodies in this supersexual culture.