Context Shorts: SCREENDANCE – Main Program

Komitas’ adaptation of the Armenian folk labor song “Yel, yel” has always been one of my favorite musical pieces. You may not know its words or understand their meaning but it still makes you cry, feel empathy for everything that surrounds you and experience some unknown feelings... 

Even though this is just a folk labor song, the harmony of its acapella tells you of eternal issues, of the inner sentiments of each human being, the power of never giving-up. 

According to Maestro Robert Mlkeyan this song shows the Armenian peasant’s attitude towards his ox. The ox was really crucial for the Armenian peasant for it was the breadwinner of his family. In fact, it’s well-being was equal to the well-being of his child. And if someone’s ox was sick or died, it was a great tragedy. This song depicts that very moment. The peasant says, “Stand up, stand up, the day passed, it got dark.” 

Still Life is a triptych of three films inspired by the stage version. The films are the result of a 12-month COVID-enforced collaboration between Australasian Dance Collective and Kiosk Film.

Spiralling into Desire is a Movement X Film collaboration that traces a woman's descent into her deep body to access and retrieve her true autonomy. The film draws parallels from the first epic poem 'The descent of Innana' which narrates the story of  the Sumerian goddess Innana's  descent into the underworld, to visit her sister Ershikegel - the queen of the dead.  Separated, the two sisters represent the Madonna/Whore split, a dangerous consequence of patriarchy. The descent begins the journey towards the healing of this split.  

This experimental film is set at the intersection of cinema, movement arts, psychology and spirituality. Inspired by the practice and discipline of authentic movement and natural dreamwork, the film builds on both - the creative process and the witnessing process, as it explores the question ‘how do we hold desire in our bodies’.  

Bringing together dancer, authentic movement and mental health practitioner Brinda Jacob-Janvrin, filmmakers Roohi Dixit and Ziba Bhagwagar, this experiential film is a visceral journey into the liminal space inhabited by the mover as she navigates the inner and outer worlds.

A park.

Two 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.

 

Park is about eras, evolution, force, decision, move and be moved by. 

Each era is a different movement or dance. 

The possibilities that exist in the Park. 

A boy looks out of his bedroom window and all of a sudden an idea pops into his mind and begins to spread throughout his body. The desire to escape prevails. The window becomes a bridge between real and unreal. The boundary between inner and outer space becomes increasingly ephemeral. Each place involves him differently, transmitting emotions and feelings to him.

Modernism negates concepts of the past. It crushes traditions. It searches for new forms and ways to reflect the present, to restructure the world we know, and to cut off everything that is unnecessary and leads to simplicity and functionality. More than a hundred years ago, Aleksey Gastev envisioned utopia in his book Express. A Siberian Phantasy, which portrayed the great cities of the future. In it, Novosibirsk is presented as a city of steel, Stal-Gorod, a high-tech and perfect urban space. The whole of Siberia could become such a space. However, only a few artefacts of this legacy remain today. Stal-Gorod is a utopia. It is a story about space which has its own purpose. The airy public space, and closed private existence.

A chiaroscuro reveals creatures discovering their environment with instinctive gestures. Warned by metallic echoes, they gather within a pack through a cadenced choreography, revealing a vulnerability specific to human beings. Between control and collapse, their bodies rush into a frantic race. 

Choreographic Surrealistic Short Film.
Inspiration source: Biblical and Mythological Themes.
The film is structured on the basis of the stylized dance lexis of the Georgian Traditional Choreographic Art.

A film based on a Votic folk tale. Vod people (the Votes) are recognized as nearing extinction, and the Votic language is included in the UNESCO list

Overwhelmed with information and distractions Man escaping the city for the search for peace and sense for the living. In his journey he is passing several Sansaras paths and has found his own unique way on the nature inside himself.

TOUCH is a dance film that takes place in an imagined future:
where for unmentioned reasons, humans have been living without physical touch for a very long time. We witness our characters interact with a simple mechanical device in a large, private space. This is in order to experience the touch of another human being, for the first time in the new physically distant future. 

Two lovers fall out of love with the passing of time.

A dance film about our minds and its pluralistic personas.

Berlin-based performer and movement director Marie Zechiel’s latest visual narration takes us on a journey through our subconsciousness. This gripping one-shot-composition is portraying the momentum of our internal and eternal discussions. It ́s about the challenges our minds encounter while negotiating our diverse beliefs.

It is an intriguing and imaginative piece visualising five dancers locked in a space that depicts our innermost self. They are longing for balance in every reoccurring loop exploring our fundamental beliefs. This society of mind is revealed through Marie Zechiel’s sharp yet unifying choreography which highlights the confusion of our minds and also our desire for inner harmony.

„A Myriad Mind“ is a dance film captured in one continous shot, collaboratively realised by Marie Zechiel, director I AM JOHANNES and DoP Lasse Liebelt. The project required a special room without entrance designed and build by Lothar Heinert to realise the original concept. The five dancers plus camera and lighting crew were constantly locked inside demanding a secondary choreography ensuring perfect timings to hide or reveal to make the illusion become reality.

The film follows the experience of living Hell from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy through the dance. A visionary journey deep into one's self, changing and reincarnating into a new image. Heaven begins in Hell.

We hope there will be less pollution, less destruction and less war around this world.Our fate will be connected closely, also live harmoniously with nature.The world should be more united ，like a family, and we explore the civilization of universe together.