Spotlight Shorts

This curated selection of twelve short films spotlights the breadth of creative imaginations at the leading edge of contemporary screendance.

Interpersonal tensions, intimate portraits, exclamatory bursts of energy, and transformative emotional journeys unfold up close through the uncontainable impulse to dance. Filmmakers and dancers channel the expressive range of a psychedelic rock band, a throwback pop hit, a heartfelt singer-songwriter, a flamenco star, an underwater dancer, and the evocative power of bodies moving through landscapes and cityscapes.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE:
6:30-7:30PM Reception with beverages and live performance, open to all
7:30-8:30PM Film Screening
8:30-9:00PM Filmmaker talkback

ABOUT SHACK15:
SHACK15 is a social club in the heart of San Francisco, dedicated to serving the next generation of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers. Located in the iconic San Francisco Ferry Building with panoramic views of the Bay, SHACK15 has a rich programming calendar for a diverse community to gather and connect.

This program includes a live performance by The Collective Attention.

Please review SHACK15’s House Rules and Guest Code of Conduct.

SHACK15 LOCATION:
SHACK15 is located on the 2nd floor of San Francisco’s Ferry Building. Please use the elevator to come to the 2nd floor in the Ferry Building’s “Office Lobby” – located underneath the giant clock tower, on the left side of the main market entrance.

Program Info

Runtime: 60 minutes

Thursday, October 17 @ 7:30PM
(Pre-Screening Reception @ 6:30PM)

Venue: SHACK15

$20 GA / $40 Arts Patron

Program Films

A group of tennis-shoe clad dancers stands in a park looking out at the New York City skyline. Their backs are to the camera and they wear shorts with colorful tops.

In “A Place for Us,” six female cast members from Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" play with a gender flip of the iconic prologue.

Leigh-Ann Esty, Ellie Gravitte

Adriana Pierce

(United States, 2023) 6:18 minutes

A Place For Us

A dancer stands on a beach, looking towards the ocean. They are shirtless, wearing a silk, green skirt that extends far behind them. They hold their arms back behind them, with their elbows backwards and chest out.

Poetry, dance, and stop-motion film techniques merge in “Organized Hope,” a moving meditation on how we fall, break, and mend ourselves and each other through vulnerability and grace.

Amy Seiwert

Amy Seiwert

(United States, 2024) 6:24 minutes

Organized Hope

A woman looks intensely into the camera lens against a dark backdrop. She wears a bright red dress and holds her hands out to the side, raised dramatically, as if mid-clap. She has long dark blonde hair that cascades down her back.

A star flamenco dancer navigates the pressures of fame in “CUT,” a dramatic portrait of virtuosity shot entirely on analog film.

Jesper Tønnes

Selene Muñoz

(Denmark, 2023) 4:30 minutes

CUT

Against a cloudy dusk sky, there are the abstract silhouettes of two dancers leaning back to back. Around them are wooden chairs.

“Rural Girl Crosses the River” celebrates the power of community to support an individual through collective spiritual connection to land and water.

LanTianWen, YuLu, ZhongZhenWei

LanTianWen, YuLu

(2024) 6:07 minutes

Rural Girl Crosses the River

Two dancers in orange tank tops and flowing gold skirts dance on a rooftop in the sun in front of a city skyline. One dancer holds the other's waist, as she leans back with her arms outstretched and one leg extended in attitude behind her.

Shot in downtown San Francisco, “Summer” is a brief love letter to the many sides of the season in the modern age.

Robin Dekkers

Robin Dekkers

(United States, 2023) 7:03 minutes

Summer

A person in a long blue, puffy dress, blue gloves, and approximately 3-inch platform heels, crouches on a piano bench at a piano that has multiple keyboards extending upwards. They play a chord and look off to the side.

The psychedelic romp “We Know Who You Are” imagines four talented female quadruplets who form a rock band that challenges their sisterhood.

Ryan Renshaw

Josie Weise

(Australia, 2023) 3:40 minutes

We Know Who You Are.

A blurred image of a tuxedo-wearing Asian dancer moving through a tunnel with light blue walls. The image feels unbalanced and the dancer glances at the camera with his mouth slightly open.

“Monday” is an ode to Mondays: the monotony of the grind, the threat of burnout, and the power of dance to liberate the everyday office worker.

Andreas Guzman

Ruochen Wang

(Hong Kong) 5:02 minutes

Monday

A singer emerges from a black background. She wears a crisp white button-up shirt. Her hands are slightly raised as she closes her eyes to sing.

A singer and a dancer lend equal expression to “In the Dark,” a song that explores vulnerability and the transformative journey of finding oneself.

Tony Holman

(United States, 2023) 4:03 minutes

In the Dark

Two male dancers are in a wood-paneled room. One leans away while the other holds his arm, providing a counterbalance. They are shirtless and wear grey pants with black ballet shoes.

In “Breathless,” two dancers locked in an infinite dance hover between life and death to find strength and vulnerability together.

Eve McConnachie

Madeline Squire, Nicholas Shoesmith

(United Kingdom, 2024) 5:34 minutes

Breathless

A large group of dancers are posed in black chairs in a vast industrial lot. They lean right and left, parted in the middle by a dancer who faces the camera straight on with their arms raised. The dancers are uniformly dressed in black long-sleeve shirts, black pants, and black shoes, with a white untied bowtie around their necks.

A composer attempts to contain the chaos of creativity by conducting an orchestra of dancers in “Concérto.”

Yadiel Alejandro Figueroa

Yadiel Alejandro Figueroa

(United States, 2024) 3:51 minutes

Concérto

A white woman with flowing brown hair floats underwater above the deck of a wrecked ship covered in algae. She leans backwards in a layout with one leg straight up above her. Fish swim past in the background.

In “The Deepest Dance,” one artist brings her mastery of underwater dance to vivid life among shipwrecks sunk in tropical blue waters.

André Musgrove

Ariadna Hafez

(Bahamas, 2024) 3:54 minutes

The Deepest Dance

A group of nine dancers in sunglasses cluster around one seated in a chair with orange sunglasses and long nails. They all wear vintage 70s clothes in earth tones and are indoors on a wooden stage.

Gotye’s 2011 global number one hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” gets a stylishly revamped music video from the Netherlands’ CDK Company.

Sergio Santos Reis, Jowha van de Laak, Mauro van de Kerkhof

(Netherlands) 3:50 minutes

GOTYE – Somebody That I Used to Know – C...

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