“John Cranko” at the 29th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival

Thursday, March 27: Roxie Theater, San Francisco
5:30 PM: Buy Tickets

Monday, March 31: Rialto Cinemas® Elmwood, Berkeley
7:45 PM: Buy Tickets

ABOUT THE FILM

“John Cranko” (Germany, 133 min)

Directed by Joachim A. Lang, and starring Sam Riley and Elisa Badenes.

Stuttgart, Germany, 1960. Prosecuted for homosexual activity in London, up-and-coming choreographer John Cranko seeks refuge in the rather sleepy yet sympathetic city. With his charming demeanor, the manic workaholic swiftly revitalizes the local ballet company. After a controversial replacement of the prima donna and a series of new additions, Cranko’s first production of Romeo and Juliet is a sensational success. Cranko becomes the darling of the public, with a soon globally renowned ensemble, invited to perform at prestigious venues such as New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Driven by a quest for perfection in both art and love, Cranko grapples with destructive private setbacks, plunging into periods of profound loneliness and depression. However, as long as his devoted dancers stand by him, he sees no reason to alter his intoxicating lifestyle.

Trailer: Beta Cinema

ABOUT THE BERLIN & BEYOND FILM FESTIVAL

Now in its 29th season, the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival continues to be a leading light of contemporary German and European cinema exhibition in the Americas, by both audience size and programming scope. Through the many years, over 500 motion pictures from German-speaking countries, produced in over 30 different countries, have screened at Berlin & Beyond to over 200,000 attendees, from independent works to studio pictures to topical documentaries and shorts from the filmmakers of tomorrow. The Festival looks forward to its 30th Anniversary in 2026.

29th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival
March 27-29, 2025: Roxie Theater, San Francisco
March 30-31, 2025: Rialto Cinemas® Elmwood, Berkeley
April 6, 2025: Jarvis Conservatory, Napa
View the Film Line-Up

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Fauxnique + San Francisco Dance Film Festival
Saturday, March 15, 4 – 6 pm
Venue: di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Gallery 2
$30 General; $20 Members

Buy tickets here

Part One: Down the Path

Nearly two decades ago Fauxnique presented Heroic Comportment, a performance in response to Oropallo’s exhibition, Guise, at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, kicking off a creative connection that continues to weave through the artists’ lives. Building on that shared history, Fauxnique’s performance Down the Path takes inspiration from the fairy tale and protest imagery in Oropallo’s current exhibition, Moving Pictures. The performance draws on Fauxnique’s persistent obsession with artifice, authenticity, and femininity to contemplate the march of personal and political progress, interrupted by obstacles real and imagined, and villains tricky and treacherous.

Part Two: Postcards from the Edge. 

Curated by Randall Heath, Executive Director of the SF Dance Film Festival, Postcards from the Edge presents a selection of short dance films celebrating movement, resilience, and transformation while unfurling urgent narratives of climate distress, political defiance, and the fluidity of gender identity. Through dramatic choreography and cinematography, the films in Postcards from the Edge capture a spirit of resistance and reinvention, proving that even in times of upheaval, movement is a force for change.

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

Tanin Torabi

(Iran, 2019) 7:39 minutes

The Dérive

Polyrhythmic dance highlights years of systemic exploitation of labor while amplifying the power and joy of collective resistance.

John Jota Leaños, Vanessa Sanchez

Vanessa Sanchez

(United States, 2022) 13:12 minutes

Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film

Filmed in the surreal and eroding Icelandic landscape, Mother Melancholia is a quiet, yet urgent conduit between the internal world of the human experience, and the planet we inhabit.

Samantha Shay

Samantha Shay

(Germany, 2022) 29:34 minutes

Mother Melancholia

Build your altar, light a candle, grab a fistful of glitter, and call upon your higher self.

Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia in collaboration with the artists

(United States, 2022) 2:30 min

The Nelken Line

Selected films:
Circle (Mexico)
The Dérive (Iran)
Ghostly Labor (USA)
Mother Melancholia (Germany)
Nelken Line (USA)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Monique Jenkinson is an artist, choreographer, performer, and writer. Her work dwells at the intersection of contemporary dance and cabaret and considers the performance of femininity as a powerful, vulnerable, and subversive act. Her alter-ego, Fauxnique, made herstory as the first cis woman ever, anywhere, crowned as a pageant-winning drag queen, and her performance works have toured nationally and internationally in wide-ranging contexts from nightclubs to theaters to museums. She engaged in public conversation with superstar philosopher Judith Butler and RuPaul bestie Michelle Visage within days of each other and has created both college curricula and space for children to design gowns for drag queens. Honors include residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, Tanzhaus Zürich, and Atlantic Center for the Arts, an Irvine Fellowship and residency at the de Young Museum, GOLDIE and BESTIE awards, and generous foundation support. Her memoir, Faux Queen is out now on Amble Press. 

San Francisco Dance Film Festival offers something for diehard dance fans and newcomers alike, from in-depth feature documentaries to engaging shorts programs. Since its first iteration in 2010, the Festival has secured a solid place on the international scene, drawing a vibrant and diverse range of participants from all over the world. SFDFF offers a rare place where independent artists can celebrate their achievements and inspire each other as a unified community. It also serves to introduce dance to those who don’t typically attend live performances and showcases new international talent before it reaches the Bay Area through traditional venues.

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

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The program highlights include Flower staring Misty Copeland, Free by filmmaker Yoram Savion, and Every Second by Antwan Williams, whose work is deeply connected to local creative communities. This selection showcases the Bay Area’s rich dance and film culture, bringing together artists who use movement to tell compelling and transformative stories.

About the Films

Free (United States, 11 min.)
Director: Yoram Joseph Savion
The stigma of criminality haunts a young Black man in “FREE,” a poignant short film narrated from inside his mind and brought to life through his body.

Every Second (United States, 2023, 10 min.)
Directors: Antwan Williams, Maurice Reed, Reyna Brown
Choreographers: Antwan Williams, Amie Dowling, Maurice Reed, Reyna Brown
“Every Second” is a poignant short film that delves into the life of a man who has just been released from prison but finds himself struggling with the reality that he will never be free from his experience of prison.

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“Everything You Have is Yours” at JFI WinterFest 2025
Saturday, February 22, 7:00pm
Vogue Theater • 3290 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
Tickets: $15–20 • $75–100 for weekend passes

BUY TICKETS HERE

ABOUT THE FILM

Everything You Have is Yours (United States, 2023, 90 minutes)

In this sensitively crafted documentary, choreographer Hadar Ahuvia interrogates the roots of the Israeli folk dances she grew up dancing with her mother. Facing romanticized stories about her grandparents, Zionist ‘kibbutznik’ settlers in Palestine in the 1930’s, she begins a personal endeavor unpacking and confronting the appropriative origins of this inherited dance. Through this vulnerable, personal story a larger weaving of powerful artistic portraits emerge— Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian dancers living in New York City question what is inherited and what to choose to carry forward.

Director Tatyana Tennenbaum conveys the power of dance as an embodied medium for grieving, healing, resistance and reclamation. Everything You Have Is Yours honors these powerful associations, reminding us of our shared humanity and the need for collective liberation.

Director Tatyana Tenenbaum, participant Hadar Ahuvia, editor Colin Nusbaum, and producer Brighid Greene expected to attend.

Please also join the filmmakers at the Creative Interventions: The Role of Art in Healing Political Division panel on Sunday, February 23 at 1:30pm for an extended conversation.

West Coast Premiere

FILMMAKER BIOS:

Tatyana Tenenbaum is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and first-time documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her performance work explores embodied lineages and relationality through practices of voice and movement and has been described as a “rich polyphony” by The New Yorker. She has been presented by The Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, ISSUE Project Room, Movement Research and New Jewish Culture Fellowship, among others.

Through a persistent side hustle as a videographer she has documented the work of 100+ artists, notably through her years-long relationship with Baryshnikov Arts Center as well as through the ecosystem of independent artists in NYC. Tatyana has learned to move, listen and collaborate by working with artists such as Yoshiko Chuma, Jennifer Monson, Daria Faïn, Emily Johnson/CATALYST, Hadar Ahuvia and countless brilliant peers. She looks forward to re-nurturing her live performance practice after the endlessly growthful experience birthing Everything You Have Is Yours.

Hadar Ahuvia is a dance artist and Jewish educator and ritual leader. She creates performances, workshops, and rituals that forefront the role of the body in political, social, and spiritual action. Her essay “Joy Vey” on choreographing a diasporic Israeli identity beyond Zionism is featured in the Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance. Ahuvia holds a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, a Dance Magazine “25 to Watch” in 2019, and is the subject of a forthcoming documentary by Tatyana Tenenbaum, Everything You Have Is Yours.

Her choreographic credits include NYLA/DTW, Danspace Project, 14th St Y, Gibney Dance, Temuna, Malta Festival, and La Mama. Her work has been supported by residencies at Yaddo, Movement Research, Brooklyn Arts Council, Art Stations Foundation, Mana Contemporary, and Baryshnikov Arts Center.  As a performer, she has had the honor of dancing with Sara Rudner, Reggie Wilson/ Fist and Heel Performance Group, Donna Uchizono, Jill Sigman, Kathy Westwater, Trisha Brown and Lucinda Child’s Dance, and co-creating and collaborating with Shira Eviatar and Tatyana Tenenbaum. Ahuvia has shared her research at AJS, ASU, UM, City College, Whitman College, and Yale, Hofstra. She is a currently a rabbinical student, an organizer with Rabbis for Ceasefire, a service leader at Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, and artist in residence at RUAH Community Health where she teaches contemporary approaches to Yiddish dance.

About the Jewish Film Institute: The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) is a nonprofit organization that champions bold films and filmmakers that expand and evolve the Jewish story for audiences everywhere. JFI does this through the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, year-round exhibitions, its Completion Grants and Filmmakers in Residence programs, and its educational and archival programs.
For more information on JFI, please visit www.jfi.org

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Graphic Design: Katherine Disenhof

Animation: Olivia Ting

Composer: Caroline Feitosa

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“Women in Motion: Mastering Career and Motherhood”
Wednesday, October 23
5:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Swissnex in San Francisco, The Embarcadero, Pier 17, Suite 800
FREE ADMISSION – CLICK HERE TO RSVP

ABOUT THE FILM

Becoming Giulia (Switzerland, 2022, 103 min.)
In Italian/German with English subtitles.

“Becoming Giulia” follows the life and career of Giulia Tonelli, principal dancer at the Zurich Opera House, as she returns from maternity leave. She has to fight to find her place and a new balance between the competitive and extremely demanding world of an elite ballet company and her new family life.

The main film will be preceded by Syncope, a short dance film by Linus von Stumberg

PANEL DISCUSSION

Following the film, a panel comprised of Frances Chung, Principal Dancer at San Francisco Ballet, Laura Kaehr, Director Becoming Giulia, and Sophie Lamparter, Founder and Managing Partner of DART Labs, moderated by Jale Yoldas, Cultural and Public Diplomacy Officer of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, will lead a discussion on the challenges and rewards of balancing a career in dance, arts, and technology with motherhood. Panelists will share personal experiences, reflect on the unique demands of their careers, and discuss strategies for maintaining work-life balance in demanding and competitive industries.

Frances Chung (Principal Dancer at the San Francisco Ballet)
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Frances Chung trained at Goh Ballet Academy before joining San Francisco Ballet in 2001. She was promoted to soloist in 2005 and to principal dancer in 2009. Chung has danced such major roles as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake; Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty; Swanilda in Coppélia; Cinderella in Wheeldon’s Cinderella, Elizabeth Lavenza in Scarlett’s Frankenstein; Giselle in Tomasson’s Giselle; Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker; Kitri in Don Quixote. She has created roles in ballets, including Forsythe’s Pas/Parts 2016; Peck’s In the Countenance of Kings, McGregor’s Borderlands, Scarlett’s Hummingbird and Fearful Symmetries, Possokhov’s Classical Symphony, Wheeldon’s Borealis, Rhoden’s Let’s Begin at the End among others. Chung received the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance for the 2013 Repertory Season. Chung is a mother of two, her son Forest is 5 years old and her daughter Faye is 22 months old.

Laura Kaehr (director, writer, and film choreographer)
Born in Locarno, Switzerland, Laura Kaehr received her training as a professional ballet dancer at the Centre de Danse de Cannes, Rosella Hightower, and at the Academy of Ballet, San Francisco, CA. She danced at the Zurich Opera. She studied the Sanford-Meisner technique with Jack Waltzer in Paris and New York and worked as an actress, in the award-winning television series “Déchaînées”.

Laura studied film directing and screenwriting at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and at the University of California (UCLA) in Los Angeles, graduating in 2018. Her debut short film “1927” opened at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2014. She is the co-author of the TV series “TILT”, which aired on SRF Swiss Television in December 2017. Laura is co-founder and co-president of SWAN (Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network). A member of Women in Film, Hollywood, CA, which promotes gender equality and diversity in film. After a few short films “New World”, and fashion film “Avian” for the brand YVY, in 2019 she started filming her first feature film “Becoming Giulia”.

In 2022 “Becoming Giulia” premiered at the Zurich Film Festival and won the Audience Award, becoming a national blockbuster. Distribution: national First Hand, and international Sales agents Cercamon.

Sophie Lamparter (Founder of DART Labs)
Sophie is a connector. For the last 14 years she has been building international networks between Switzerland, Europe and the US. Sophie co-founded DART Ventures to invest in Swiss & European startups in health and climate technologies thriving on the US market.

Prior to founding DART she was Deputy CEO at swissnex San Francisco, Switzerland’s Innovation Outpost in San Francisco. She helped create a new hub at Pier 17 in San Francisco and was instrumental in building the US strategy and partnerships for Swiss entrepreneurs. As an operator for Mindmaze, a neuro-technology company and Switzerland’s first unicorn, she lead their US market entry efforts as part of their initial US team.

Sophie was named one of the 100 Digital Shapers in Switzerland 2018, 2020 and 2022, works as an expert to the European Commission and spoke at events like SXSW, Ars Electronica, Lift Conference, and Gray Area. Sophie gave birth for her first daughter in January 2024.

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We are pleased to announce our Award Jury for the 2024 San Francisco Dance Film Festival. These jury members were selected for their formidable dance, film, and cultural expertise. They will select winners in six categories and we will announce their decisions at the festival finale.

Reid Bartelme

Reid Bartelme is a costume designer and dancer from New York City. He danced in ballet and modern dance companies before attending the Fashion Institute of Technology. Since graduating from FIT’s fashion design program Reid has focused his practice on costuming dance productions. Much of his work is done in collaboration with designer, Harriet Jung. They established Reid & Harriet Design in 2011 and have made costume-centric performance work at the Museum of Art and Design and the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. They have completed fellowships at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU and The Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Reid & Harriet Design recently completed design work on their second Broadway show, Justin Peck’s Illinoise (2024) which was preceded by Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ in 2023. Reid completed his MFA in Dance at University of the Arts in 2021. Reidbartelme.com

Frances Chung

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Frances Chung trained at Goh Ballet Academy before joining San Francisco Ballet in 2001. She was promoted to soloist in 2005 and to principal dancer in 2009. Chung has danced such major roles as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake; Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty; Swanilda in Coppélia; Cinderella in Wheeldon’s Cinderella, Elizabeth Lavenza in Scarlett’s Frankenstein; Giselle in Tomasson’s Giselle; Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker; Kitri in Don Quixote. She has created roles in ballets, including Forsythe’s Pas/Parts 2016; Peck’s In the Countenance of Kings, McGregor’s Borderlands, Scarlett’s Hummingbird and Fearful Symmetries, Possokhov’s Classical Symphony, Wheeldon’s Borealis, Rhoden’s Let’s Begin at the End among others. Chung received the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance for the 2013 Repertory Season. As a guest teacher and coach, Chung has taught for the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet School, and Idaho Ballet among numerous other dance institutions in the United States and Canada.

Stéphane Glynn

Stéphane Glynn is the Head of Production at Vavani Productions, an Emmy®-winning prosocial film production company. With Vavani, Stéphane produces, directs, and edits documentaries, assists in the management of Vavani’s scripted content library, and produces marketing materials. Vavani’s latest project is BAREFOOT BOY, a feature documentary about modern dance legend Bill Evans.

Stéphane quickly fell in love with screendance as a Dance Minor at the University of Virginia. After earning his BA in Media Studies & Psychology, his passion for filmmaking led him to Utah, where he completed an MFA in Film & Media Arts and a Screendance Certificate at the University of Utah. Stéphane continues to work on dance films and was one of the co-founders of the Screendance Collective (2013-2019), a group dedicated to curating and discussing screendance.

Jeremy Jacob

Jeremy Jacob (they/them) is a critically acclaimed and award-winning visual artist and filmmaker based in New York City. Jeremy Jacob’s work has been presented internationally by such institutions as La Biennale di Venezia – Palazzo Grassi, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Zuckerman Museum of Art, New York Live Arts, The New York Public Library, Wexner Center for the Arts, Fisher Center at Bard College and Princeton University among others. Jacob’s work also includes on-going collaborations with performance-makers including Jack Ferver, Pam Tanowitz Dance, Netta Yerushalmy, Abby Z and The New Utility, and Trisha Brown Dance Company among others. They are the founding director of A Doll’s House Pictures.
jeremyjacob.com / adollshousepictures.com

Caitlin Sims

Caitlin Sims is editor in chief of Dance Magazine and content director of Dance Media. An editor and writer for more than two decades, she has written and photographed for Dance Magazine, and her writing has appeared in Pointe Magazine, Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, The New York Times, Newsday and Playbill. After graduating from Stanford with a BA in political science and economics, she was news editor at Dance Magazine, before becoming editorial director of Dance Teacher and Dance Spirit and part of the team that worked with editor Virginia Johnson to launch Pointe magazine. She spent 6 years overseeing content and editorial for San Francisco Ballet as well as managing its social media accounts. She studied ballet with Beatrice Collenette and at Ballet Pacifica in California.

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FREE!

San Francisco Dance Film Festival is excited to partner with Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema for “Film Crawl on Mission”. Experience SFDFF audience favorites at the Magic Patio. We’ll be sharing a selection of five short films that range from documentary shorts to innovative narratives and represent a dynamic range of creativity with broad audience appeal. Featuring exciting locales like the bustling streets of Lagos, the roofs of Mexico City, and San Francisco’s skyline, dancers find poetic expression in the universal language of the body in motion. Click here for more info.

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Join us for an exciting evening of dance and film as part of SHACK15’s Summer Series! SHACK15 proudly presents a special program curated by the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. Enjoy three award-winning short dance films: I Just Wanna Dance, Then Comes the Body, and Heartache. This special event will also preview SFDFF’s upcoming events, including a special screening of Sony Pictures’ iconic cult-classic Center Stage, which will be presented by SFDFF on September 13th at the Herbst Theater with an appearance by the film’s star Amanda Schull (SUITS, 12 Monkeys, Pretty Little Liars).

Following the SHACK15 screenings, hear from an illustrious panel including Garen Scribner (Former SF Ballet soloist and star of An American In Paris on Broadway), Chris Oullette (former ballerina of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the world’s foremost gender-skewering comic ballet company), and others. The panel will share insights during a Q&A session and discuss their work and upcoming Festival projects.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to engage with dance, film, and theater industry leaders and experience the alchemic fusion of film and movement.

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