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Film Catalogue

Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones
Online
Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones

Kaveh Nabatian, 2022, CA, HT, 67 min

On the night of August 14, 1791, a Vodou ritual took place in Bois-Caïman that became the precursor to a mass uprising against slavery and the birth of Haiti, the world’s first black independent republic. Since then, ceremonies of artistic and religious expression have been a mainstay of Haitian culture and its resistance to external oppression, poverty and natural disaster. Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones is an intoxicating creative and spiritual experience. In this captivating documentary, director Kaveh Nabatian worked closely with local dancers, musicians, fishermen, daredevil rollerbladers and priests to create a sensory immersion in these sacred rituals.

Physical Culture
Online
Available online: 22/03/2024
Physical Culture Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Anna Bogomolova, 2022, NL, 8 min, 0+

Physical Culture frames rave as a vital human practice in the information age. It invites us to explore physical movement, to discover who we are when we dance and why we do so. It asks universal existential questions and puts them in a refreshingly queer, playful package. It's rave, it's queer, and it's for everyone!

The Paper Ensemble #16
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
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
Online
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
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 22/03/2024
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
Available online: 20/03/2024
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
Available online: 20/03/2024
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
Available online: 20/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
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
Online
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
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 22/03/2024
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
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
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
Available online: 20/03/2024
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.

Circular
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
Circular New Dutch

Inge Theunissen, 2022, NL, 10 min

In the history of the future, lab technicians clone themselves. The temperature rises when a clone emerges that deviates from the norm. A game of mirroring, attraction and repulsion emerges, in which the distinction between the deviation and the standard becomes blurred, and even reversible. In the end, who is the right clone?

Trilogia
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
Trilogia New Dutch

Simon van der Zande & Marvin Beekhuijzen, 2023, BE, NL, 7 min

The discovery of a dance creature in the elevator of a theater sets in motion a cat and mouse play between performer and camera. Both are looking for the fragile harmony of a dance captured on film.

Two To Tango
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
Two To Tango Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Dimitri Sterkens , 2021, BE, 18 min

Twelve world leaders assemble in a war room to play a game on life and death in which they have to dance tango. Last man standing.

This film is part of the online program but is not accessible on the territory of Belgium.

Forming
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
Forming Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Eve McConnachie & Chloe Rosser, 2022, GB, 6 min

A faceless, genderless body moves in tiny motions; twisting, twitching, stretching; transforming into curious, surreal and intimate shapes. Forming includes dancers with MS and examines the experience of living with a neurological condition. Developed from an artwork by Chloe Rosser and supported by Scottish Ballet.

A State of Thirst
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
A State of Thirst Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Ashavari Majumdar a.k.a Vajrasara, 2023, IN, 8 min

The human body and its most basic need is the subject of this minimalist film envisioning a water-scarce future. A young man stumbling along a path, hears the sound of water before dropping down in exhaustion. He opens his eyes to find himself in a bare landscape where a bottle of water sits on top of a very high pole.

The Rooster
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
The Rooster Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Chadi Younes, 2023, LB, 8 min

"In our neighborhood, lives a rooster. In our neighborhood, lives a sadist slaying rooster!" With these first words, Syrian writer and poet Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani recites the journey of a dictator rising to power.

STEPS
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
STEPS online potential

Genoveva Claria , 2022, AR, 13 min

Carmen, has just won a dance competition, she is holding the prize in her hands. She is exhausted, but happy, it has been worth the effort. She walks home, she just wants to show off her prize and let her family know that she has succeeded this time. She is so happy she can't even feel her own feet. But someone is following her. She realizes too late, it's too close. Carmen has to run, hide and defend herself. She'll never get home, she doesn't need to prove anything to anyone, not anymore. "Footsteps" proposes a poetic look at violence against women based on a physical investigation of Argentinean folkloric traditions and their replication in modern times.

Siren
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
Siren New Dutch

Scott Fowler, 2023, NL, 7 min

Siren is a short story of a curse. The central figure’s heightened state of danger blooms into ecstasy, disgust and rage. What happens when we yield to our fear?

As the Call, So the Echo
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
As the Call, So the Echo New Dutch

Alex Raúl, 2023, NL, 6 min

As the Call, So the Echo follows a young woman in conflict with her inner demons. How does she reckon with her unknown self?

ZWEET
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
ZWEET New Dutch

DansBlok & Jilles van Kleef, 2023, NL, 15 min

Millennial Eva is looking for a way to escape her daily struggles. The nightlife can give her the anonymity she needs to finally surrender to the moment. Will she get carried away by the flow of the beat? Can she disappear into the crowd without losing herself?

Blue Funk
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
Blue Funk online potential

Louise Coetzer, 2023, ZA, 13 min

Blue Funk charts the physicality of being afraid. As chain reaction, fear settles over its targets, exposing their innate sentient responses of freeze, fight, fawn, and flight. The resulting cacophony evokes the volatility of this moment in time, a mounting pressure edging towards its breaking point.

Home
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
Home Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Orian Michaeli, Wiaam khater, 2023, CA, IL, 20 min

Through a feminist lens, Wiaam from Syria and Orian from Israel seek to examine alternative methods of protest against occupation, racism and violence in current Israel. They grapple with the decision of whether to leave or stay, take action or remain home.

Mathilde
Online
Mathilde New Dutch

Jocelyne Moreau, 2021, NL, 8 min

Mathilde is a short film based in parts of the 19th century novel 'A Love Story' by Dutch author Lodewijk van Deyssel. Mathilde is estranged from herself and her surroundings by a long-term illness. She is advised to go and live in the countryside for a while. One evening she comes out of her lethargy and has a breakthrough.

The Blue
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
The Blue online potential

Kati Kallio, 2023, FI, 10 min

Sininen (The Blue) is a fairytale fantasy of a bird-like figure in the embrace of the forest. The central character of the film has evolved over the years as Vappu has searched for her power figure through dance and movement. The film depicts gentle strength and magical skills, independence and a self-directed ability to create life, meaning and encounters around her. Each of us has something unique to pass on. The script was written together with the performers and choreographed by Vappu Virkkula.

Branches
Online
Branches Out of Competition

Masumi Saito + Guy Wigmore , 2023, GB, 27 min

Branches asks how our lives could differ based on a single decision or encounter. Drawing on director Masumi's experience as a minority and immigrant to the UK, we examine how the environment and society shape us. Exploring neuroses and fears through the multiverse, viewers will ponder how choices in life topple like dominoes. We present opportunities for viewers to reflect on their lives in our post-COVID information-oriented society, which fragments our ideology.

Little Movement
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
Little Movement New Dutch

Sergio Gridelli | Maaike van de Westeringh, 2023, NL, 8 min

Little Movement is a short dance film in which six patients with Huntington's disease are portrayed in a dream-like space where time is suspended. An intimate choreography shows us their positive energy, zest for life and resilience in their vulnerable and fragile existence.

A new day has come
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
A new day has come online potential

Red Nguyen Hai Yen, 2022, VN, 8 min

Ngày Mới’ (A new day has come), is a poetic visual response to the new track “Ngày Mới” of Vietnam-based electronic band Tiny Giant. The film depicts a world in constant motion that opens up when we slumber. Cavernous darkness is a habitat of transit, between worlds and the axis of time. In the heart of this motion, memories, knowledge, sadness and joy will leave their residues without completely disappearing: perhaps they have fallen into another place, another turning of time. The moment of transit in the cave doubles as both childhood and adulthood come to the surface in sync, where we bend closer in proximity to the inner child, the taste of a spoonful of innocence lingering on the tongue. Deity-like characters also appear in the video. They are gods of the filmmaker’s own world turned into images, as any person can have their own interpretation of a god. In this film, God is understood as a provider of support and company, and trust is a form of custody. We trust in the things that can protect and guide us. The eyeless horses, then, appear as mascots and attachment figures that walk with the children towards the world.

Part of the choreography was initially inspired by the ‘Kitsune Wedding’ scene in ‘Dreams’ – a film by Akira Kurosawa, in combination with experimental hip hop moves and the krumping stomps, choreographed and performed by Saigon-based dancer Kim from La Différence Saigon and Hanoi-based dancer Quay Trần from Abnormal Conceptz.

Endurance
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
Endurance New Dutch

Imre van Opstal, 2023, IL, 11 min

Whether it's running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or simply making it through a difficult day, endurance is what enables people to persist and succeed. A film about the power of perseverance and resilience and a testament to the idea that with hard work, determination, and the inherent drive to keep going despite adversity, anything is possible.

Parque
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
Parque online potential

Iván Asnicar & Ailén Cafiso, 2022, AR, 6 min

A park. Two bodies dance looking for the exit. Through the tour they find fantastic and real situations. The movement will carry them forward into the next age. A labyrinthine passage from Dance in the Park.

Around its own axis
Online
Available online: 25/03/2024
Around its own axis New Dutch

Mirte van Duppen, 2020, NL, 12 min

Around its own axis showcases the infinite, repetitive rhythm of the automated Dutch agricultural landscape. Machines perform a dance, while choreographer Pauline Roelants, in the language of her profession, guides the viewer through the scenes. Thus, the silences and tranquility of the landscapes, interacting with the impulsive actions and mistakes of the machine, become an integral part of the choreography.

Mimeisthai
Online
Mimeisthai Out of Competition

Phoebe Robinson, 2023, AU, 16 min

Mimeisthai is an experimental screendance that responds to Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘mimetic faculty’, which is, the ability to perceive and/or reproduce similarity. This generic skill is possessed by all living things and finds expression on various levels, from the biological to the behavioral; such as in reproduction or camouflage, to the myriad ways that creatures communicate.

In Mimeisthai movements are shared, copied and repeated between performers both on and off-screen, and then amplified across multiple frames. Through duplication, repetition, and layering multiple exposures, this work explores the mimetic faculty of dance and digital video.

Faces of Passing Love
Online
Available online: 22/03/2024
Faces of Passing Love Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Hsiang-Yun Huang , 2023, NL, TW, 9 min

Faces of Passing Love is a film that mourns for past lovers through obsolete technology: a repeatedly projected slideshow, where eyes open, mouths whisper, tears linger.

La Ultima Ascensión
Online
Available online: 22/03/2024
La Ultima Ascensión Competition Shorts, International Short Film Competition, and New Dutch

Kevin Osepa, 2022, NL, 23 min

Rowin, a 22-year-old fisherman from Banda Abou (Curaçao) has little luck catching fish at his fishing spot. He goes there everyday despite the disapproval of his mother. One day, on the coastline where he fishes daily, he encounters a mysterious young man who will change everything.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands and until the 25th March.

The Lost Years
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
The Lost Years Out of Competition

Marcos Zoe Nacar, 2023, DE, ES, 5 min

On a 5-day hike from the Seriana to the Brembana Valley in Italy, a character is in search of answers but doesn’t pose any questions. A speculative dance documentary reflecting on the relationship between human and mountain, as material entity and as idea.

?!%$&*#@$^*()}!@#|%>?
Online
Available online: 24/03/2024
?!%$&*#@$^*()}!@#|%>? Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Clare Chong, Sonia Kwek, 2022, SG, 7 min

Two bodies emerge, one of flesh and one of metal. Both are cautious of, yet compelled towards each other. This evolves into a game of hide and seek. Can friendship truly form or will we always be stuck in a limbo of a human vs machine narrative? ?!%$&#@$^()}!@#|%>? is a cry to connect, to be seen by each other and come together. Singaporean filmmaker Clare Chong and movement artist Sonia Kwek are working for the first time with the Bolt, a high-speed camera robot.

Dante
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
Dante

Jamie Lee, 2023, BE, 5 min

We are transported into a dream-like state in which we do not run, but dance. The original music composed by Echo Collective takes us on a journey through landscapes where time disappears and we are drawn into nature.

Dog Cloud
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
Dog Cloud New Dutch

Amos Ben-Tal/OFFprojects, 2023, NL, 8 min

Four dancers, one choreographic score, one poem, one camera, one angle, three takes and no edits. Dog Cloud explores the subtle interplay between structure, chance and the human desire for finding patterns and stories.

and so I'll go
Online
Available online: 23/03/2024
and so I'll go Competition Shorts and International Short Film Competition

Julia Müllner, Anna Sophia Rußmann, Kilian Immervoll, Pipi Fröstl, 2022, AT, 9 min

A building is in constant development, it’s enlivened, used, worn out, decaying. Bodies leave traces in buildings. Buildings leave their mark on us. Decay does not necessarily end in dust that we gently sweep away. In and so I'll go the carpet of an old furniture showroom becomes the grid of various accumulative micro plots and intimate dances.

EXT.
Online
Available online: 20/03/2024
EXT. online potential

Laura Nasmyth, 2023, AT, 25 min

A figure transitions between two realities: An external material one - in which they are subjected to increasing levels of social interaction - picking up ‘human’ traits as they go. And an internal fluid one - in which they are able to seek refuge to be and feel themselves.

EXT. is centred around the experience of someone trying to figure out what it is to be ‘human’. The film is a reference to our experiences as social animals and the often absurd evolution we go through, to adapt to society.

It also references gender exploration - the journey of an initially gender neutral character, that is increasingly nudged to conform to a binary - in order to fit in - and their escape to a fluid space, devoid of expectations and norms.

The film uses movement instead of dialogue as a means of expression and follows the protagonist on their awkward journey through different surroundings, like an avatar in a computer game.