Film Catalogue
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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 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 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.