SFDFF On The Road
Audience Favorites 2023 (AF23)
Experience a selection of ten short films, including documentary shorts, narratives, and experimental screendance works, that represent a dynamic range of creativity with broad audience appeal. Take a tour of diverse dance styles as smoldering jazz, flamboyant drag, athletic street dance, and world-class ballet come into conversation across the globe. From the intimacy of dance studios to the bustling streets of Lagos, Mexico City, and San Francisco’s own soaring hilltops, dancers find poetic expression in the universal language of the body in motion.
To request the rental of this Touring Reel Program, please send an email to linda@dancefilmsf.org.
The Program:
A sizzling homage to jazz music and dance past and present, “Lady Be Good” showcases the antics of a leading lady and her many suitors in a smoky barroom.
James Kinney, Pierre Marais
James Kinney
(United States, 2021) 5:57 minutes
Lady Be Good
“Every Step Counts” takes an inside look at the artistic inspiration and motivations of Takano Yonen, a Japanese soloist member of the Hong Kong Ballet.
Andreas Guzman
Takano Yonen
(Hong Kong, 2023) 3:31 minutes
Every Step Counts | Takano Yonen
With undulating athleticism, powerful unisons, and a hypnotic score, "CIRCLE" explores cosmic forces at play for people living in mass cities.
Phillip Kaminiak
Qiaoqiao Zhang
(United States, 2022) 6:10 minutes
Circle
“Then Comes the Body” is a short documentary about the challenges and opportunities experienced by students at the Leap of Dance Academy, Nigeria’s first and only ballet school.
Jacob Krupnick
Daneil Owoseni Ajala
(United States, 2023) 14:20 minutes
Then Comes The Body
Set in an ice castle amid a sweeping frozen landscape, “Windersweet on the Snow” expresses spiritual longing and connection as two dancers embody the flowering of a new dawn.
Cuiying Li
Cuiying Li
(China, 2022) 4:34 minutes
Wintersweet on the Snow
Confined to a small white box, the lone dancer in “Isolation” finds expansive expression and quiet curiosity in a fluidly rippling dance.
Andrew Margetson
Shay Latukolan
(United Kingdom, 2023) 2:37 minutes
Isolation
A selection from the nine-part dance film spectacular “Up On High,” “The Nelken Line” is a heartfelt rendition of Pina Bausch’s looping, gestural choreography by a colorful assemblage of queer artists.
Eric Garcia
Eric Garcia after Pina Bausch
(United States, 2022) 3:42 minutes
Up On High (excerpt: “The Nelken Line”)...
In “Bleach,” a young man on the losing side of his battle with depression gradually falls deeper into dejection and isolation.
Caleb Soon
Devon Stone Johnson
(United States, 2023) 4:27 min
Bleach
Set in a derelict theater, “Heartache” deploys tensely expressive movement in a darkly playful take on the dynamics of seeing and being seen.
Iker Karrera, Alberto D. Centeno
Iker Karrera
(Spain, 2021) 3:21 minutes
Heartache
In “Old Man at the Corner Store,” an elderly man crosses paths with young neighborhood mischief-makers and dances them through a game of “follow the leader”.
Nadav Heyman, Anabella Casanova
Nadav Heyman, Cheryl Mann
(United States, 2023) 8:10 minutes