2015 FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Rare Birds
(USA/Norway, 2014) 59:01
Director: T.M. Rives
Choreographer: Alexander Ekman
View Trailer | More Info
A making-of documentary following every aspect of production of Alexander Ekman’s technically challenging A Swan Lake (nominated for 2014 Prix Benois de la Danse) at the Norwegian National Ballet.
HONORABLE MENTION
Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer
(USA, 2015) 82:00
Director: Jack Walsh
Choreographer: Yvonne Rainer
View Trailer | More Info
Yvonne Rainer has been overthrowing genres and radically altering the way we experience dance, film, and performance art for 50 years. This film examines the contradictions and creativity of this remarkable provocateur.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Inheritor Recordings
(Canada, 2014) 6:20
Director: Brian Johnson & Lisa Gelley
Choreographer: Josh Martin
View Film | More Info
Inheritor Recordings is a reimagined adaptation of an excerpt from 605’s original stage work, and warps time and place to augment and expand 605’s raw physicality.
BEST DIRECTOR / BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Ruben van Leer/Symmetry
(The Netherlands, 2015) 53:24
Director: Ruben van Leer
Choreographer: Lukas Timulak
View Trailer | More Info
While Cern researcher Lukas is working on the theory of everything and the smallest particle, he is thrown off balance. Through Claron’s singing he rediscovers love, in an endless landscape, when time didn’t exist; a love with no end…
BEST SCREENDANCE SHORT OVER 10 MIN
Pas
(Canada, 2015) 14:40
Director: Frédérique Cournoyer-Lessard
Choreographer: Stéphanie Thellen
View Trailer
Through her life, Rose has followed her passion for dance by using it as a singular method of communication essential to connecting with her surroundings.
HONORABLE MENTION
A Short History of Madness
(Canada, 2014) 27:00
Director: Isabelle Hayeur
Choreographer: Virginie Brunelle
View Trailer | More Info
Bringing together contemporary dance and architecture in a series of six pieces, A Short History of Madness evokes the history of treatment of mental illness.
BEST SCREENDANCE SHORT UP TO 10 MIN
Lay Me Low
(Canada, 2015) 7:50
Director: Marlene Millar
Choreographer: Sandy Silva
View Trailer
Performed by ten dancers, musicians and singers, Lay Me Low cuts right to the heart to communicate a universal feeling of loss while evoking a paradoxical sense of intimacy.
HONORABLE MENTION
Inheritor Recordings
(Canada, 2014) 6:20
Director: Brian Johnson & Lisa Gelley
Choreographer: Josh Martin
View Film | More Info
Inheritor Recordings is a reimagined adaptation of an excerpt from 605’s original stage work, and warps time and place to augment and expand 605’s raw physicality.
BEST SCREENDANCE SHORT UNDER 5 MIN
Snap Into It
(USA, 2014) 3:57
Director: Devin Jamieson & Jillian Meyers
Choreographer: Jillian Meyers
View Film
A gleeful digression from anticipated outcome, in favor of savoring the pursuit of whim // Following a renegade train of thought with dimension, texture, and amplitude // A staccato attempt to trace the digressions from an iconic Langston Hughes poem.
HONORABLE MENTION
Lost in Motion II
(Canada, 2013) 4:34
Director: Ben Shirinian
Choreographer: Guillaume Côté
Featuring National Ballet of Canada Principal Dancer Heather Ogden, the film combines original choreography, stylized art direction and seamless VFX to visually interpret the experience of an artist baring her soul on stage.
BEST STUDENT FILM
Continuum
(France, 2014) 9:15
Director: Natalianne Boucher
Choreographer: Stéphane Fratti
View Trailer | More Info
A choreographic film mixing dance and animation. Our perception of time and its connection with space is explored in movement through the symbolic depiction of sand’s matter.
HONORABLE MENTION
Tap, Tap, Tap
(USA, 2014/2015) 4:30
Director: Theo Taplitz
Choreographer: Theo Taplitz & Denise Sheerer
A boy suffering from hearing loss finds a pair of magic tap shoes hanging from a telephone wire.
IMPACT AWARD
Let’s Get The Rhythm: The Life and Times of Mary Mack
(USA, 2014) 53:00
Director: Irene Chagall & Steve Zeitlin
View Trailer | More Info
Chronicles the history of hand-clapping games on playgrounds around the world. Through wars and migrations, across language barriers and oceans, young girls connect with each other through thousands of variants—as ancient as they are global.
2015 AUDIENCE FAVORITES
The following films were selected by audience survey as the individual screendance shorts program favorites:
Opening Night: International Shorts 1
Continuum
(France, 2014) 9:15
Director: Natalianne Boucher
Choreographer: Stéphane Fratti
A choreographic film mixing dance and animation. Our perception of time and its connection with space is explored in movement through the symbolic depiction of sand’s matter.
International Shorts 2
Snap Into It
(USA, 2014) 3:57
Director: Devin Jamieson & Jillian Meyers
Choreographer: Jillian Meyers
View Film
A gleeful digression from anticipated outcome, in favor of savoring the pursuit of whim // Following a renegade train of thought with dimension, texture, and amplitude // A staccato attempt to trace the digressions from an iconic Langston Hughes poem.
International Shorts 3
A Short History of Madness
(Canada, 2014) 27:00
Director: Isabelle Hayeur
Choreographer: Virginie Brunelle
Bringing together contemporary dance and architecture in a series of six pieces, A Short History of Madness evokes the history of treatment of mental illness.
Co-Laboratory Films + Local Shorts
Mad Scene 2.0
(USA, 2015) 4:40
Director: Mark Kohr
Choreographer: Christopher Stowell
A Silicon Valley office is the setting for a twenty-first century mad scene.
